Been involved in an accident?

[AK47Diver]

I had a situation where a very good buddy of mine and I went to the quarry to dive.

This was his first dive after losing a leg in an accident and he originally want to do it in a nearby river. I prevailed upon him to go first to the quarry that was farther away than the river. He is a far more experienced diver than I but has been out of the water for awhile. Did I mention he's been a solo diver and not used to having a buddy?

At the quarry it started out ok, and we were at about 30 feet diving around a sunken aircraft.
he then tried to race past to get behind me and then he started having trouble and then went shooting up to the surface.

I followed and came up (on purpose) behind him and asked what was wrong. He replied that he needed me to get him to shore and get him out as he couldn't balance. He was not in full panic and did respond rationally to questions and instructions.

I calmed him down, told him to inflate his BC, got him in a tired diver tow by grabbing the tank yoke and got him to shore. Turns out his weight belt had shifted and he couldn't stabilize with one fin. Once we got his gear readjusted he was ok and got used to moving on one fin. He is still very much a solo diver with little to no buddy awareness.

My analysis: 1. Glad I insisted on the quarry in the river this would have been likely a disaster.

2. Amazed that the OW tired diver tow procedure came back like that and worked perfectly.

3. Made me appreciate the DIR team approach (I'm a learning DIR diver) and the DIR team I regularly dive with, and I'm determined that the next time I dive with him there must be some of my team present so while he's off on his own I have my team for backup and dive enjoyment.

4. Made me decide that a Rescue Class is going to be signed up for in the near future.

Thankfully this was nothing heroic or catastrophic and it didn't cascade into something a lot worse. It was however a great validation that the tank tow works very well.

 

[Bad-Andy]

Successfully pulled a 13 year old girl out of the water at a public beach in PA (a river) when I was a lifeguard (a looooooooong time ago when I was in high school).

How did it affect me? It came under review, I got an atta boy letter from my boss (the beach manager), and fired by the recreation board that ran the beach -- because I entered the water without blowing the whistle and waiting to clear the water. (mind you, the girl was outside the rope and drifting downstream at a good clip...). Only job I've ever been fired from... :mooner:

 

[The Chad]

Wow Andy I would have liked to hear what you had to say to the board for firing you. If I was there it would have been an ear full.

The reason I started this thread in the first place was to get a feel for what others have ran into in the course of their lifes, what they thought about it and how it affected them on a personal level. I was involved in non-diving related accident July of this year and it still kinda huants me.

To make a long story short a boat flipped over at a lake I happen to slip at. For years I've carried my O2 kit and dive gear on my boat. It was 11am and myself and other slip patron friends were having breakfast at the end of the dock. I had just got done diving for sunglasses since we all get drunk the night b/4 and tend to lose them. We noticed the capsized boat 150 yds away and my buddy says lets check it out. I say "naw the water patrol is there, and they never want my help anyways" 2 minutes pass and my buddy says c'mon. I say okay and grab my fins, mask and pfd. We commender another buddys jetski and full throttle it to the boat.

When we arrive I ask "is everyone accounted for?" They respond "no" I hit the water, tell my buddy to get my kit already setup on the dock 150 yds away, tell the water patrol to mark the position, and throw me a line to drag the boat towards shore some 60ft away. I make a few free dive attempts to no avail, my kit arrives so I just nuetral it out and drag it behind using my long hose, after about 30 seconds I find what feels like a person. I pull and he dosen't move....I am hoping he is in an air pocket. By touch, the person did not feel right, he's got to come with me. He's wedged in something but I get him out in no time and to the surface.

Start rescue breathing as I tow him to the patrol boat now closer to the rocky shore. I can stand now and my fins, mask and everything else become yard sale items. I yell for a backboard, and myself, buddy, another slip buddy and 2 onlookers boost this 280 man into the patrol boat. I am spent...a second goes by and no ranger on the boat is doing CPR......I jump in and start CPR and scream "hit it".

The boat takes 6 minutes to get to the dock a few 1000 yds away. The motor quits twice as the ranger drives over a sandbar. They forget to untie from the capsized boat. They have no O2. I yell again to "hit it" and hear a ranger say something but I don't know what b/c I am CPR mode. I'm screaming "relieve me, relieve me.. I can't do this anymore" A ranger does 30 compressions as I puke for the second time on the back of the boat, and then I start pumping and breathing for him again. Blood is coming out of his nose and mouth. We hit the dock, EMS, fire, police, rangers are there, I help the FD get him on the dock and I collapse. Enroute the did get a pulse back and he was alive but in a coma for about 30hrs so his family did get to see him....I went to the hospital met the family, they asked if I wanted to see him I said "I coulden't" He died a short time later.

So much for being brief....I guess I just needed to talk about it. I have placs and medals from the FD and Sheriff and have been honored, but it just diden't feel right accepting them. I know deep down I did all I could, I know about what happens after things don't work out, I know about PTS and the "what ifs". All the feelings I have are natural and I will deal with them. I just wish I would not have assumed the rangers "have everything under control" as they always tell everyone. I guess that day I learned not to listen to anyone else and go with your gut......Sorry for the lenght.

 

[lamont]

So much for being brief....I guess I just needed to talk about it. I have placs and medals from the FD and Sheriff and have been honored, but it just diden't feel right accepting them. I know deep down I did all I could, I know about what happens after things don't work out, I know about PTS and the "what ifs". All the feelings I have are natural and I will deal with them. I just wish I would not have assumed the rangers "have everything under control" as they always tell everyone. I guess that day I learned not to listen to anyone else and go with your gut......Sorry for the lenght.

You've got to realize that guy was dead and gone by the time you reached him. Even if you had acted completely promptly to suit up and get ready immediately upon seeing the capsized boat he was still most likely dead and gone. What you did, though, was worthy of the medals.

I know that the situation I was involved in (which similarly was futile the moment we got involved -- she had blown her lungs out and the autopsy revealed a CAGE) a few of the people on shore helped, but the majority of them hauled out their cellphone cameras and started taking pictures. It is better to be on the side that tries to figure out some way to help, the medals just acknowledge that you're on the right team.

 

[Nitrox50]

Hi

I have been in the water three times as a life-guard, but only one rescue-situation as a diver.

As DMT I failed my rescue acessment, and while the instructor was telling me why I failed - a diver came to the surface and screamed help, help. He was about 100 yards from me - I got to him and inflated his BCD. After that he relaxed and I towed him to our boat.

He was about 50, out of shape and not an experienced diver. He went with a local dive-shop and the DM had put 15 kilo of weight on him (he was wearing a old 3 mm shorty). He got lost from the group and panicked. The weight apparently gav him some discomfort in the surface....No problems afterwards.

It did not make much of an impact on me - but my instructor still refused to credit me for the rescue-drill....

 

[lamont]

Actually I did have one save...

Coming back in from a dive (lots of swimming, lots of surface swimming, very tired at this point) a team of 3 was heading out on the surface. One of the divers started complaining that he couldn't breathe. He decides to turn back on the surface. His buddies decide to continue, and go diving and leave him, even though he's becoming progressively more agitated.

This works up over a minute or two to the point where his buddies are gone, he's starting to look just like my instructor in rescue class (yelling and flailing around for no apparent reason at all). Me and my buddy are the closest divers in the water to him so we yell at him to drop his weights and he does. We get closer and I explain that I can tow him in (while staying out of grabbing range). This calms him down quite a lot and he's no longer dangerously close to complete panic and seems more agitated. So I move in behind him to tow him, *VERY* conscious of the fact he could flip out and visualizing how i'm going to grab his tanks with my legs, deflate my wing, kick off and get the hell away from him underwater. Once I start towing him in, though, he starts getting more relaxed, but he's still kicking. I tell him "stop kicking and just relax, I'll tow you in" and he suddenly goes limp and completely relaxed. Exhausted, I get him towed into shore and he get outs. My buddy even grabbed his weights and gave them back to him (all this was in about 6 feet of water, but the surface tow back was about 100-200 feet of distance).

 

[victor]

Tough, you did everything you could and more, don't beat yourself up over it.
Maybe the rangers department need to look into there training, equipment and the commitment of some of their staff.

 

[Kevrumbo]

Not yet, but standing by for that fateful day on Volunteer Crew at the Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber:

One of the duties of the Tender is to to assist the LA County Baywatch Paramedic inside the Chamber. Worst case scenario is performing two-man CPR on a gas embolism victim in full cardio-respiratory arrest, in the heat of chamber compression going to 165fsw: narc'd out-of-your mind in an ambient temperature of well over 100 deg F. . .

 

[movieflick]

I had an incident right after my AOW certification that has convinced me that there is a need for:

1. Every diver that plans to dive on a fairly regular basis other than just on vacation should continue their education to at least a rescue diver cert. Not knowing how to properly respond to an issue can cause something that is fairly benign to turn into a much more serious situation by responding incorrectly.

2. Should be required to have a certain level of fitness to dive independent of a group containing a dive master or instructor. Just because you are "Medically" fit enough to dive does not mean you are "Physically" fit enough to deal with an issue should you be required to do so.

I am neither trained for an issue should it arise nor am I fit enough to deal with a physically demanding rescue. I am doing all that I can to change these deficiencies.

 

[The Chad]

Boaters Question Their Safety - Video - KMGH Denver

Yeah I'm with you on that one Victor, we did actually try to get them better educated and equiped but they never follew through. Here's a link to the NEWS video a few days after the accident.