Bahamas: Missing Female Diver

[RMDiver]

The DM was hired to be a buddy to the missing woman. That carries responsibilities. No punishment for failure to perform, but the responsibilities are there.

The DM surfaced and then went to be by herself, it has been stated she was in shock. OK, now what? She cannot handle the stress of seeing a diver lost and still perform as a DM. It's time to do a gut check and stop being a DM. She did not aggressively pursue the victim, it seems she was "waved off" and stopped. Not good in a rescue scenario. She has now demonstrated she cannot handle the job, and furthermore, when she got to the surface she did not function in an acceptable, professional manner. Time to hang up the DM cap.

Harsh, but accurate.

 

[Andy077]

The DM was hired to be a buddy to the missing woman. That carries responsibilities. No punishment for failure to perform, but the responsibilities are there.

The DM surfaced and then went to be by herself, it has been stated she was in shock. OK, now what? She cannot handle the stress of seeing a diver lost and still perform as a DM. It's time to do a gut check and stop being a DM. She did not aggressively pursue the victim, it seems she was "waved off" and stopped. Not good in a rescue scenario. She has now demonstrated she cannot handle the job, and furthermore, when she got to the surface she did not function in an acceptable, professional manner. Time to hang up the DM cap.

I've seen much the same in the fire service, you have people with lots of state courses, entitling them to be called instructor, or "qualified" to be an officer, and frankly, they just don't have it. The mental and emotional ability to react correctly under actual emergency stress conditions are so different than anything you might learn in a controlled course as to make the course nearly meaningless. Unfortunately, this type of person believes that because they did the classwork to make them a DM, or fire officer, or whatever, that they know everything and believe that they will react to any situation correctly.

 

[Grover48]

My son works for the US Forest Service in fire. He is a certified EMT. He took the test and was on the list to become a fireman for the same fire department I work for. His crew was returning from a fire and came upon an accident involving 3 cars. He was tending to a 15 year old boy who died in his arms. We talked about the incident and his reaction. He decided to stay in wildland fire fighting and not accept the position with a municipal department because of his reaction to death and injuries.

He was man enough to know his limitations. We should all do the same.

 

[stadevene]

He was man enough to know his limitations. We should all do the same.

You make a very good point. All the training and simulation in the world can't truly prepare you for the real thing. There are some here who know they could take charge of the situation because of prior experience, some who think they could, and those of us who know we couldn't because we're not ready.

It took an incident for your son to realize he wasn't cut out for certain situations and perhaps now the DM has realized the same and if she chooses a diving career can attempt to insulate herself from these situations in the future. Perhaps some in the group who think they could have rescued would find, like the DM, they were unable to. I think it's just a bad situation all around for everyone involved.

Here's hoping when the dive investigation is complete we'll all have as complete a picture on what happened and can take any recommendations to heart.

 

[rhone]

Looking back I still feel that if I had only followed my gut feeling to drop and take charge of the situation Ms Wood would have been brought to the surface I am 99% sure of that. ........

........I keep telling myself that I did the right thing by staying with my buddy and more so that my buddy happened to be my wife, but in hind sight deep down I felt that my wife would be ok her issues weren't that serious more mental than life endangering, but what was happening below was very serious.

I can't help imagining that you're beating yourself up over this and feeling quite poorly about it, and, despite not asking for it, I think you need to hear this: YOU DID THE RIGHT THING.

At that moment, you neither had all of the information that is now coming to light nor were you able to act upon the benefit of hindsight during the actual event. For all you knew, going down might have caused a panic-induced event for your wife.

Comfort yourself by knowing that had you indeed known the facts you would have helped. You might have had a feeling something was happening, but by not actually knowing, you did the right thing by taking care of your buddy (wife). Life can end very quickly, without much fanfare or warning, that I learned during combat operations in Iraq, and without fail, there are countless permutations of "what if"; ultimately, none of them are very helpful.

 

[Web Monkey]

It was shortly after this time that the urge to drop down and take charge of the situation was strongest. I was now about 30ft above Ms Wood and the DM , my wife was maybe 15ft / 18ft above me. I looked up at my wife in some kind of hope that she would give me an ok sign to do what I wanted to do, but she didn't. Instead I could see in her eyes that she was having a rough dive and looked stressed.
. . .
Looking back I still feel that if I had only followed my gut feeling to drop and take charge of the situation Ms Wood would have been brought to the surface I am 99% sure of that. I remember thinking the viz is good I am with in my skill level, I would have to be quick to catch her but I had plenty of air, I felt good and had seen most of what had happened prior and knew what I had to do and how I would do it.

Don't beat yourself up over this. It's completely situational.

I know that if I was diving with my regular buddy that we could have dragged Mrs. Woods back to the surface with or without her cooperation and afterwards been happy for the "practice."

However, if my buddy was anybody who has limited comfort in the water or possibly marginal skills, there's absolutely no way I'd even consider it. If you think you feel like **** now, think how you would feel if you went after Mrs. Woods and came back to find that your wife had run OOA and drowned.

A rescue is only good if you're reasonably certain that you can pull it off without creating more victims.

The bigger point is that Mrs. Woods hired a DM as her personal buddy and you should not have found the need to get involved at all.

Terry

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

1+ for what Web Monkey said.

onlyhalcyon: From what I've read, you reacted really well to a totally unexpected and very confusing situation.

You had no way of knowing what was really going on, and even though your gut instinct was that something looked wrong, there was no way for you to know what the outcome was going to be. As Web Monkey said, leaving your wife alone while you tried to assist could have been a very dangerous choice.

I know it can't be easy, but you made the right decision in that moment. Please do not try to second guess yourself now.

Best wishes.

 

[Andy077]

My son works for the US Forest Service in fire. He is a certified EMT. He took the test and was on the list to become a fireman for the same fire department I work for. His crew was returning from a fire and came upon an accident involving 3 cars. He was tending to a 15 year old boy who died in his arms. We talked about the incident and his reaction. He decided to stay in wildland fire fighting and not accept the position with a municipal department because of his reaction to death and injuries.

He was man enough to know his limitations. We should all do the same.

Forest service fire is no joke either, I prefer having my water supplied by the Big Red Truck, and not carry it in on my back. I've seen things on the roads in the 15 years I've been doing this to make most people sick, but I have reservations about hiking into a wildfire, so good for your son!

 

[cruiser]

If anyone is interested in Radha's obituary, I have posted it here:

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/passings/293588-radha-wood-obituary.html#post4547687

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Grover Not sure one incident is a good enough measure in most cases. Kids always get to you! I've seen experienced Paramedics have trouble with one call but be brilliant in the calls before and after on the same shift. You seem like a pretty cluey guy and know your son tho so I can't armchair quarterback that one. Congrats on raising an asset to the community.

Those who are talking about the DM "isolating herself" after she got on the boat. Here is what is going on in my mind... perhaps onlyhalcyon can tell me if he thinks I am off base on my assumptions in this case.

The DM indicated to him to advise the other DM's of the missing diver. When onlyhalcoyon went back to his buddy (as WAS HIS DUTY) the original DM did not leave the site. After that he can not say what the DM did or DID NOT do. Since the DM in question was second last to surface and this was some time AFTER onlyhalcoyon surfaced I am assuming that she continued her search for her missing diver even tho it was ineffectvie /unsuccessful. I am also assuming that when she saw the diver she had "assigned" to relay the information was already on the boat she probably believed the search had already been arranged.

When I worked in the Emergency Services I saw many occassion where a Paramedic/fireman/policeman/nurse/doctor handled a nasty situation then needed to "isolate themselves" to pull themselves together before they could get back to business. Since there were other DM's on board and she has already been unsucessful in getting her buddy to the surface I don't think it is unreasonable for her to take her isolation time. Had there been no one else taking over I would also be very criticle.