A real rescue course - very close near miss

[kathydee]

That is exactly the right attitude. Learning more can only help make you a better diver. Keep it up and best of luck

Thanks!

 

[DiverBizz]

Great job and thank you for sharing. This was a great real-life learning experience for your rescue class and thankfully the victim had alert and trained divers to assist him.

 

[wetwon]

Great post! a good reminder to continue learning! Well done. More experience than you planned on but etched in your mind forever and will serve you well.

 

[rockinrobin]

Further to what was said above, different people can panic in different situations. I used to be a military driving instructor and I've had highly experienced Royal Marines, with extensive combat experience, on the verge of tears at the thought of driving on the road for the first time. My wife, who has been diving about 2 years longer than me, can stay calm in almost any situation. A couple of years ago in Hurghada, I literally had to grab her fins to stop her making an uncontrolled ascent when a large moray poked it's head out of the coral near her. She's a surgeon and quite capable of self control normally.

Who knows what happened?

We're hopefully off to Sharm later this year and I was thinking about doing a course. Now I know which one I should be doing. Thank you so much for the post.

 

[MattLemmy]

Just seen this in the newsletter, makes remarkable reading and great job.

just one point to remind us all....

NEVER GO ANYWHERE WITHOUT YOUR BUDDY

as we have seen here one can quickly become disorientated two can calm each other down in the situation.

 

[anthony001]

well done on your response,and even though you wish you could have helped more,the bit of help you did give could make a lot more of a difference than not helping at all so congratulations and well done;from a fellow rescue diver

 

[kathydee]

Thank you all so much for your posts & thanks.

It's especially great to know this story/experience/divers misfortune motivated some of you to gain rescue training.

Your posts are definitely making the aftermath of this experience much easier!

Thanks again

 

[kathydee]

For those of you who are still reading, here is a quick follow-up to this story. The patient has made a full recovery and although he will not dive for a while - he is busy happily traveling through many countries !

 

[firstdive2005]

Hi Kathydee-
I read this thread as you posted the link in another thread. I am responding to it as it has stimulated so many emotions and thoughts to why I dive and why I want to be a safe, aid-available diver. I hope this bump sparks others to read it.
I ask my lds when they are going out to do the OW part of the resue course so I can play victim for them. I am amazed at what responses and anxiety divers can put themselves through on a TRAINING course, this real life lesson could never be thought up or paid for.
If I may ask a question. You did a roll call, did someone tell you to do that or was that just a brilliant thought on your part. kev

 

[kathydee]

Hi Kathydee-
I read this thread as you posted the link in another thread. I am responding to it as it has stimulated so many emotions and thoughts to why I dive and why I want to be a safe, aid-available diver. I hope this bump sparks others to read it.
I ask my lds when they are going out to do the OW part of the resue course so I can play victim for them. I am amazed at what responses and anxiety divers can put themselves through on a TRAINING course, this real life lesson could never be thought up or paid for.
If I may ask a question. You did a roll call, did someone tell you to do that or was that just a brilliant thought on your part. kev

It makes me happy to hear that you got something useful from this post.

To answer your question: it was quite chaotic once we had the patient on the boat - we had to recall 2 classes of OW students (maybe 10-12?) DMT's, Instructors. Because of all the patients seizing & sounds, there was quite a lot of intensity & urgency in everybody - the type that can create greater problems.

There was a very disorganized effort by a few in the chaos to account for all divers. Roll calls are the norm for that shop. But - nobody though of it that day except for me. Thanks kev