My dive buddy Rick has given me permission to post this-I will give a full trip report later but I feel this is to important to wait. This is his account of what happened. Thank you for reading, please pass it on and safe diving to all. Bill
Some of you may have seen my posts about scuba diving and safety. We were preparing for a dive vacation to Bonaire where we would not be with a Dive Master, our group would be doing shore dives, we were on our own and I wanted to make sure I was prepared if we had an emergency while diving. We took the Padi Nitrox Certification before we left and in the class we spent about 30 minutes going over rescue protocol. My research and interest was not in vain, we returned from Bonaire on Sunday and this is my rescue story.
We stayed at the "Sand Dollar Condominiums and the dives were through the "Dive Friends Bonaire"
April 28th, 2015
Dive Site: Cliff, located at the Hamlet Oasis Resort
Our group of five divers arrived at the dive site and did a survey of the entry point, there were approximately 10 steps that spiraled down to the waters edge. The steps were made up of dead coral and rocks which did not make it very stable to walk on as it would shift under our feet as we walked down but we all made the decision to dive the site.
We geared up topside and made our way down to the entry point which was about 20 feet from the bottom of the stairs. The entry point was made up of both large and small rocks, there were waves that were coming in which made it difficult to get out to where it was deep enough to descend. Once we all had our fins on we descended and began our dive.
We leveled off at 60 feet, and headed south along the reef, fluctuating between depths of 60-78 feet, well within our maximum depth limit. At the 14 minute mark we were at a depth of 60 feet, my dive buddy approached me and signaled that he was not feeling well, I repeated the signal back to him and he verified there was an issue, I signaled back asking if he wanted to end the dive and ascend, he acknowledged that we needed to end the dive and make our accent.
My buddy grabbed both my shoulders and we began our accent, looking into the eyes of the diver I could see he was distressed but still responsive. At approximately 40 feet the diver began shaking, at this point i put my hand on his regulator to keep it in place in case he lost consciousness, I continually tapped the purge button on his regulator during the accent to ensure there was positive air flow and he would not have to struggle for air.
Once we hit the surface I inflated his and my BCD, placed the diver on his back, located the exit point and began to swim back. With the regulator in his mouth I kept tapping the purge button as we made our way back. I did remove the regulator at one point so he could tell me tell me his symptoms which were that it felt like there was an elephant sitting on his chest and he was in a considerable amount of pain having difficulty breathing then the regulator went back in. Before we reached shore another diver in our group had made his way back to shore and informed a person there to call an ambulance.
Once I made it to shore with the diver there were 3 staff members and a guest of the dive shop there waiting, we did our best to make the diver comfortable which was difficult because waves were crashing on the rocks and he was lying on his back with all his gear still on. My focus at this point was to keep the regulator in his mouth so he wouldn't swallow water from the waves crashing over us. The divers chest pains did not subside he continued to breath off the regulator. Since we were at a Dive Shop I yelled for someone to bring oxygen. At this point the diver was losing consciousness and could no longer communicate to us, I thought we were losing him at this point, he was having difficulty keeping his eyes open and focused, his condition worsened as time went on. One staff member was on the phone with 911 and I communicated with 911 through her.
At this point the rest of our group had made it to shore, it was a difficult to maintain stability as the waves kept crashing down on all of us, we all worked as a team getting him out of his fins and BCD so we could lift him out of the water on onto the shore. We cut off the shirt he had on over his shorty and managed to get the shorty unzipped so his chest was not restricted. Once his gear was off we were able to get him off the rocks and out of the water.
The person from the dive shop arrived with the oxygen and we swapped out the regulator for oxygen. The diver was unresponsive at this time, his eyes were barely open but I repeatedly spoke to him telling him to breathe, just keeping breathing, an ambulance was on the way, to hang on, stay with us, help will be here soon. I had tunnel vision at this point, the only thing I could see was this diver in distress, I wanted him to let him know we were there and help was on the way.
The ambulance arrived about 15 minutes within us reaching shore, they stuck an IV in the diver and began monitoring his oxygen saturation ensuring me the diver was breathing, they also placed patches on his chest and hooked up a heart monitor, so he was breathing and he was not having a heart attack. Now it was time to get the diver topside, with two EMT's and three others from the dive shop we were able to get the stretcher under him and make our way to the ambulance. This itself was difficult for a few reasons, first the spiral stairway was not designed for a stretcher with a person on each corner, we had to all work together to not lose footing, not drop the diver and to not pull the leads or the IV connected to him, there was also the oxygen tank and the monitoring device that had to be carried up. The footing was difficult since the coral and rocks were ever shifting but we managed to safely get him topside and into the ambulance, I jumped in the ambulance with one of the EMT's and we were off to the hospital. The other divers in our group split up, two would jump in our rental truck to meet me at the hospital and the other would stay behind to gather all of our gear.
I was seated on a bench at the divers feet with the machine that was monitoring him in front of me. They removed him from the oxygen tank and replace it with oxygen unit inside the ambulance. The EMT showed me the indicator on the machine that monitored his oxygen saturation because at this point the diver was completely unresponsive. Divers blood pressure was very high at this point but the EMT told me it was because his body was working hard to stay alive. In the back of my mind I thought I was watching this diver lose his life but I had to suppress that and focus on what I needed to do.
The ride to the hospital took between 10-15 minutes, once there they took him into the ER and I was told to wait outside the doors. I held onto the oxygen tank we initially used, it had DAN"s number on it and I knew that would be the first phone we would be making in case we needed to make an emergency evacuation off of Bonaire and back to the states.
The two divers made it to the hospital, one needed to go back to the resort to get identification for the injured diver, the other stayed behind with me and worked with the hospital to call DAN to begin the incident report. Within 15 minutes I was allowed into the ER room to talk with the doctor. The diver was very disoriented so they needed someone who could provide some information on what occurred. At this point I felt the diver was out of danger and was going live, when they wheeled him in, I wasn't so sure we would have a positive outcome.
The diver was conscious but indicated he felt like he was someplace else, his head was not in the right place, his speech was very lethargic and he had difficulty remembering his name, where he was, what day and year it was. A CT Scan was ordered to rule out any issues in his brain, he was being taken care by the ER Doctor, a Cardiologist and a Neurologist.
As time passed his condition improved, his color began to come back and his speech improved. The EKG's and CT Scan were all normal, they would keep him overnight to repeat the blood work and EKG. It was about 2 hours before they would put him in a room and during this time he was able sit in a chair, his color was back and his speech returned to normal. Once he was in his room and settled down we left the hospital knowing he was going to be ok. We picked him up after 24 hours, all his tests came back normal and there was nothing else the doctors there could do, he would have to see a Cardiologist when he got back to the states. The remainder of his vacation would be spent being a beach bum, no diving.
That completes the story, what made this a success was the fact none of us panicked, we maintained composure and worked as a team, thanks for reading.
Some final notes and credits:
The "Diver" my buddy that was rescued is my Dad.
The rest of our group, Bill, Dee Dee and Tina, I cannot thank them enough for everything they did, it took a team to pull this off, they helped save my Dad's life, I am eternally grateful to them. Tina for being there talking to Dad when I thought he was slipping away. I thank Dee Dee for running back and forth to the hospital and our room to gather my Dad's information and bring it to the hospital, Bill for staying behind and gathering five sets of dive gear, getting it back to our resort, rinsing and hanging it back in our lockers, I'm sure we left a mess behind.
The dive shop, "Dive Friends Bonaire" I believe they have 5 shops on the island, there is one located at the grounds of the "Sand Dollar Resort" were we were staying, which is the shop we booked our dives with and they also have a shop at the Hamlet Oasis Resort where the incident occurred. There are four people from the DIve Shop that I cannot thank enough for their actions, I did not get the name of the women who was on the phone with 911 or the guy that brought down the oxygen but the two other guys, Asko and the GM Pasco were there during the incident and helped carry my Dad up the steps and into the ambulance. To my surprise they showed up at the hospital within 20 minutes I was there to offer any assistance they could, Asko was there with Tina when she was on the phone with DAN and made sure she was ok and did not need anything. It was comforting to know these people cared about my Dad, they left me a piece of paper with their names and phone number asking me to call if we need anything.The dive shop also reanalyzed all the tanks to ensure there wasnt an issue with the fill, for the record we were breathing Nitrox, only when Bill confirmed that he did not think it was an issue with the fill did they take the tanks away. The first guy I made contact with and signaled I needed help and probably the same guy Bill told to call an ambulance was a guest at the resort, this guy jumped in without hesitation he helped get Dad out of the water, took off his shirt to put under his head, I thank you. We were able to get his email address from the resort so we can send him a personal note thanking him for his actions.
The Sand Dollar GM, Deb, she visited Dad twice in the hospital, offering to get him some magazines or anything else he needed, I met her on the grounds of the condo and was able to personally thank her. There were eight people involved in this rescue that made it successful and I am thankful to each person that selflessly contributed.
Some of you may have seen my posts about scuba diving and safety. We were preparing for a dive vacation to Bonaire where we would not be with a Dive Master, our group would be doing shore dives, we were on our own and I wanted to make sure I was prepared if we had an emergency while diving. We took the Padi Nitrox Certification before we left and in the class we spent about 30 minutes going over rescue protocol. My research and interest was not in vain, we returned from Bonaire on Sunday and this is my rescue story.
We stayed at the "Sand Dollar Condominiums and the dives were through the "Dive Friends Bonaire"
April 28th, 2015
Dive Site: Cliff, located at the Hamlet Oasis Resort
Our group of five divers arrived at the dive site and did a survey of the entry point, there were approximately 10 steps that spiraled down to the waters edge. The steps were made up of dead coral and rocks which did not make it very stable to walk on as it would shift under our feet as we walked down but we all made the decision to dive the site.
We geared up topside and made our way down to the entry point which was about 20 feet from the bottom of the stairs. The entry point was made up of both large and small rocks, there were waves that were coming in which made it difficult to get out to where it was deep enough to descend. Once we all had our fins on we descended and began our dive.
We leveled off at 60 feet, and headed south along the reef, fluctuating between depths of 60-78 feet, well within our maximum depth limit. At the 14 minute mark we were at a depth of 60 feet, my dive buddy approached me and signaled that he was not feeling well, I repeated the signal back to him and he verified there was an issue, I signaled back asking if he wanted to end the dive and ascend, he acknowledged that we needed to end the dive and make our accent.
My buddy grabbed both my shoulders and we began our accent, looking into the eyes of the diver I could see he was distressed but still responsive. At approximately 40 feet the diver began shaking, at this point i put my hand on his regulator to keep it in place in case he lost consciousness, I continually tapped the purge button on his regulator during the accent to ensure there was positive air flow and he would not have to struggle for air.
Once we hit the surface I inflated his and my BCD, placed the diver on his back, located the exit point and began to swim back. With the regulator in his mouth I kept tapping the purge button as we made our way back. I did remove the regulator at one point so he could tell me tell me his symptoms which were that it felt like there was an elephant sitting on his chest and he was in a considerable amount of pain having difficulty breathing then the regulator went back in. Before we reached shore another diver in our group had made his way back to shore and informed a person there to call an ambulance.
Once I made it to shore with the diver there were 3 staff members and a guest of the dive shop there waiting, we did our best to make the diver comfortable which was difficult because waves were crashing on the rocks and he was lying on his back with all his gear still on. My focus at this point was to keep the regulator in his mouth so he wouldn't swallow water from the waves crashing over us. The divers chest pains did not subside he continued to breath off the regulator. Since we were at a Dive Shop I yelled for someone to bring oxygen. At this point the diver was losing consciousness and could no longer communicate to us, I thought we were losing him at this point, he was having difficulty keeping his eyes open and focused, his condition worsened as time went on. One staff member was on the phone with 911 and I communicated with 911 through her.
At this point the rest of our group had made it to shore, it was a difficult to maintain stability as the waves kept crashing down on all of us, we all worked as a team getting him out of his fins and BCD so we could lift him out of the water on onto the shore. We cut off the shirt he had on over his shorty and managed to get the shorty unzipped so his chest was not restricted. Once his gear was off we were able to get him off the rocks and out of the water.
The person from the dive shop arrived with the oxygen and we swapped out the regulator for oxygen. The diver was unresponsive at this time, his eyes were barely open but I repeatedly spoke to him telling him to breathe, just keeping breathing, an ambulance was on the way, to hang on, stay with us, help will be here soon. I had tunnel vision at this point, the only thing I could see was this diver in distress, I wanted him to let him know we were there and help was on the way.
The ambulance arrived about 15 minutes within us reaching shore, they stuck an IV in the diver and began monitoring his oxygen saturation ensuring me the diver was breathing, they also placed patches on his chest and hooked up a heart monitor, so he was breathing and he was not having a heart attack. Now it was time to get the diver topside, with two EMT's and three others from the dive shop we were able to get the stretcher under him and make our way to the ambulance. This itself was difficult for a few reasons, first the spiral stairway was not designed for a stretcher with a person on each corner, we had to all work together to not lose footing, not drop the diver and to not pull the leads or the IV connected to him, there was also the oxygen tank and the monitoring device that had to be carried up. The footing was difficult since the coral and rocks were ever shifting but we managed to safely get him topside and into the ambulance, I jumped in the ambulance with one of the EMT's and we were off to the hospital. The other divers in our group split up, two would jump in our rental truck to meet me at the hospital and the other would stay behind to gather all of our gear.
I was seated on a bench at the divers feet with the machine that was monitoring him in front of me. They removed him from the oxygen tank and replace it with oxygen unit inside the ambulance. The EMT showed me the indicator on the machine that monitored his oxygen saturation because at this point the diver was completely unresponsive. Divers blood pressure was very high at this point but the EMT told me it was because his body was working hard to stay alive. In the back of my mind I thought I was watching this diver lose his life but I had to suppress that and focus on what I needed to do.
The ride to the hospital took between 10-15 minutes, once there they took him into the ER and I was told to wait outside the doors. I held onto the oxygen tank we initially used, it had DAN"s number on it and I knew that would be the first phone we would be making in case we needed to make an emergency evacuation off of Bonaire and back to the states.
The two divers made it to the hospital, one needed to go back to the resort to get identification for the injured diver, the other stayed behind with me and worked with the hospital to call DAN to begin the incident report. Within 15 minutes I was allowed into the ER room to talk with the doctor. The diver was very disoriented so they needed someone who could provide some information on what occurred. At this point I felt the diver was out of danger and was going live, when they wheeled him in, I wasn't so sure we would have a positive outcome.
The diver was conscious but indicated he felt like he was someplace else, his head was not in the right place, his speech was very lethargic and he had difficulty remembering his name, where he was, what day and year it was. A CT Scan was ordered to rule out any issues in his brain, he was being taken care by the ER Doctor, a Cardiologist and a Neurologist.
As time passed his condition improved, his color began to come back and his speech improved. The EKG's and CT Scan were all normal, they would keep him overnight to repeat the blood work and EKG. It was about 2 hours before they would put him in a room and during this time he was able sit in a chair, his color was back and his speech returned to normal. Once he was in his room and settled down we left the hospital knowing he was going to be ok. We picked him up after 24 hours, all his tests came back normal and there was nothing else the doctors there could do, he would have to see a Cardiologist when he got back to the states. The remainder of his vacation would be spent being a beach bum, no diving.
That completes the story, what made this a success was the fact none of us panicked, we maintained composure and worked as a team, thanks for reading.
Some final notes and credits:
The "Diver" my buddy that was rescued is my Dad.
The rest of our group, Bill, Dee Dee and Tina, I cannot thank them enough for everything they did, it took a team to pull this off, they helped save my Dad's life, I am eternally grateful to them. Tina for being there talking to Dad when I thought he was slipping away. I thank Dee Dee for running back and forth to the hospital and our room to gather my Dad's information and bring it to the hospital, Bill for staying behind and gathering five sets of dive gear, getting it back to our resort, rinsing and hanging it back in our lockers, I'm sure we left a mess behind.
The dive shop, "Dive Friends Bonaire" I believe they have 5 shops on the island, there is one located at the grounds of the "Sand Dollar Resort" were we were staying, which is the shop we booked our dives with and they also have a shop at the Hamlet Oasis Resort where the incident occurred. There are four people from the DIve Shop that I cannot thank enough for their actions, I did not get the name of the women who was on the phone with 911 or the guy that brought down the oxygen but the two other guys, Asko and the GM Pasco were there during the incident and helped carry my Dad up the steps and into the ambulance. To my surprise they showed up at the hospital within 20 minutes I was there to offer any assistance they could, Asko was there with Tina when she was on the phone with DAN and made sure she was ok and did not need anything. It was comforting to know these people cared about my Dad, they left me a piece of paper with their names and phone number asking me to call if we need anything.The dive shop also reanalyzed all the tanks to ensure there wasnt an issue with the fill, for the record we were breathing Nitrox, only when Bill confirmed that he did not think it was an issue with the fill did they take the tanks away. The first guy I made contact with and signaled I needed help and probably the same guy Bill told to call an ambulance was a guest at the resort, this guy jumped in without hesitation he helped get Dad out of the water, took off his shirt to put under his head, I thank you. We were able to get his email address from the resort so we can send him a personal note thanking him for his actions.
The Sand Dollar GM, Deb, she visited Dad twice in the hospital, offering to get him some magazines or anything else he needed, I met her on the grounds of the condo and was able to personally thank her. There were eight people involved in this rescue that made it successful and I am thankful to each person that selflessly contributed.
