all4scuba05
Contributor
Re: Diver Death at Redondo
by defied on Sun Jun 28, 2009 11:12 pm
I'm just going to post this to make sure the whole event is explained, and noone is left in the dark.
Here goes...
(I'm writing this report up as well as I can, because I need it documented anyways. If anyone has issues with what I type, or how I, or anyone else did things, tough.)
My brother in law, and I just made the call to end our SI and do our second dive of the day. Blacktoe (Jared from here on out) was wrapping up, and getting ready to head out. I just got my hands through my cuffs when I looked towards the water, and someone was saying that a diver was yelling in the water. Bill and I hauled a$$ across the street to see what was going on, with Jared hot on our heels.
We stopped, and saw one diver in the water about ten feet past the peer, on the pump side. I turned to see Bill go back and begin prepping his dive gear, while Jared was dialing 911. I had a pedestrian zip me up, grabbed my fins, hoody, etc, sans the rest of the dive gear, and hauled a$$ in to the water.
I got out to the diver, and he was yelling that someone was down at the second boat. I asked him if he was okay, and he said yes. I asked him if he could dive, and he said, "Yes, except I don't have a mask." I gave him my mask, and told him, "Okay. I need you to go back down there and get him. Can you do that?" He stopped, thought about it, then said, "Yes." This was good, and time saving.
I gave him my mask, and began yelling at Jared, who was on the beach at this point, to get divers in the water. Jared gave me the okay, and began running back to the parking lot. I turned to the diver, checked him over to make sure he was good, and sent him on his way.
This was probably the scariest part of the event. I had no idea what was going on, and I was only 70+ feet away from it, and not able to do anything, because I didn't have my gear on. I floated there, watching the bubbles, and thought to myself, "Sirens already?!? Wow." This lasted about 7 seconds.
I hear a splash, and turn around. There is a diver who is spitting his reg out of his mouth, and screaming for someone to help him. He's carrying a body.
I swim to him, and immediately grab the victim, while asking the diver if he's okay. The diver responds with, "I need a second. I'm good, but I need to breathe." I tell him to relax, and hold on to me. I begin finning the two of them back in to the beach. The victim does not have his BCD one. The other diver tells me he got him out of it, and brought him to the top. I asked the diver to attach his BCD hose to the victims inflator, and to put some air in to his drysuit. I crank the exhaust valve down, and the diver adds enough air so I don't have to keep him afloat.
I have the diver release the bcd hose, and ask him to help by pushing the diver in. The diver asks me if we want to begin CPR. I hear the sirens in the background, super close, and look at the diver. Foam. "No, the paramedics are on the beach, let's get him there."
Before I know it, I'm laying on my back in about a foot of water with the victim on me, and the diver flopping around, trying to get his balance in his panic. I look up, and see the paramedics come out. One of them asks me, "Is he moving?" I respond with, "He's unresponsive. Has been from the start.", "Okay, thanks!" They grab the victim and haul him over me, and out of the water. I flip around, look at the diver who is looking at me (Scared *****less, but this man is already a hero in my mind for what he's had to put up with). I put out my hands in the "Stop everything" motion. He stops moving. I look at him. He looks at me. He sits down.
At this point Bill is in the water. He comes up to me, and asks, "How's it going, what do I need to do?" I scan the horizon to see if the other diver has surfaced yet. He hasn't. Almost on cue, a man up on the MAST rail yells, "I see his bubbles!". I ask Bill to head out, and find the other diver, and to follow the mans finger. The man points to the bubbles, and stays pointing while Bill begins to head out. (I know you'll never read this, but thank you, sir.)
I look at the other diver, as he is calmly removing his fins. I see the adrenaline just leaving his body, so I tell him to go ahead, get out of the water, and talk to the medics (they search for signs of DCS). He heads out.
As I look back across the horizon, I see the other diver has surfaced, signs the okay, but then goes flat on his back. Bill is trying to get to him. I figure I may move faster because I don't have all the gear on, so I strike back out, and shoot to the diver. Bill asks me if I got him, i flip the Okay.
I grab the other diver, and ask him how he's doing. He says "I'm okay, I just need to rest for a bit". He's in shock. his voice is stale, and he's moving like he's in a dreamlike state.
I tell him, "Relax, I'll pull you in." We begin to head in. Bill is past the pier, and we pull in underneath. I have the diver stand up, and breathe, take his fins, and we walk in. Bill this whole time is communicating the situation in the water with the paramedics.
I keep the diver talking. He looks at me with this look that I just seemed to know what it meant. I look him square in the eyes, and tell him, "We all sign up for this." He nods. The medic, and the officer in charge come over to him. I make sure he's stable, and I head over to the diver who brought the victim up, and Jared, who is speaking with him.
Let me tell you about the diver who brought the vic up. He thinks he did just about everything wrong, but that man is a GD hero. What he did with his experience level was nothing short of amazing. I met him for those two hours, and I can honestly say that I'm proud to have known him. Jared and I spoke to him, and reassured him that he did everything he could, and he did beyond good. I think Bill would agree.
After he walked away, Jared then told me, "Someone needs to get his gear."
That must be us.
We went back to the cars. My brother in law gave Jared his fresh bottle, and we began to dress in. We got down to the water, jumped in, and dropped down to around 75fsw when I saw the rig. We hopped over to it, noted the condition (All good, no errors, defects, or crazy depths, everything was fine), and began our ascent. 1900PSI, 78-79fsw max depth, regs work, weights in, BC inflates.
We got topside, and carried the BC in. We told the medics what this was, and the condition of the gear. They figured at that point it must be medical. I remembered the foam. No pink. Heart? His buddy told me he was 60, right? I can't worry about that right now. not my place.
That's it. The rest was clean up. My brother began to carry the surviving buddies gear up, Jared and I packed his weights, and flashlight, and headed up the staircase.
From the pieces of the story I got (I think Bill heard more afterwards), the diver had an incident at 80 feet, and made for the surface, removing his buddies (Carl?) mask in the process. The buddy panicked, and started to follow him. The other diver (Mike, Mark?) grabbed the blind buddy, and got him to the surface safely. The victim corked, and then disappeared below the water. The diver then went to get him, while his buddy started yelling for help.
I was amazed with the people there who were making this all happen. There was this team work that was occurring that doesn't happen naturally. I'm sure this sounds all hoakey, and lame, but it was one man. Only one man knew him. The amount of people rushing around in coordination to get him out of the water, and in to the paramedics hands... I'm in awe of you all.
Jared, your responsiveness, and attention to detail required while contacting emergency services was amazing. Thank you so much for being there.
Bill, I never seen a guy get geared up that quick ever before in my life! I don't know what would have happened if you weren't in the water.
To Mike, Mark, or whatever his name was (Bill you remember his name?), you did everything right, and you didn't even have to. You could have removed yourself from that situation, but you didn't. You saved one divers life, AND you went back down to find his buddy. You sir, are more amazing then you give yourself credit for. I call that heroism.
To the buddy (Was it Carl?). I'm sorry. You were also one of bravest men I've met. I know you didn't want to go back down there, I knew that you were not in a good way, but you took my mask and made it happen. There is a feat involved in that, that most people can't even imagine, and you did it. You are chock full of Awesome.
To the victims family, I am sorry for your loss, but please know that there were many many MANY people, bystanders, and divers, who put everything they hold dear to the side to get this man to safety.
To my brother. Mad support skills. You owned it.
D(B)
Dafydd (Bishop)
by defied on Sun Jun 28, 2009 11:12 pm
I'm just going to post this to make sure the whole event is explained, and noone is left in the dark.
Here goes...
(I'm writing this report up as well as I can, because I need it documented anyways. If anyone has issues with what I type, or how I, or anyone else did things, tough.)
My brother in law, and I just made the call to end our SI and do our second dive of the day. Blacktoe (Jared from here on out) was wrapping up, and getting ready to head out. I just got my hands through my cuffs when I looked towards the water, and someone was saying that a diver was yelling in the water. Bill and I hauled a$$ across the street to see what was going on, with Jared hot on our heels.
We stopped, and saw one diver in the water about ten feet past the peer, on the pump side. I turned to see Bill go back and begin prepping his dive gear, while Jared was dialing 911. I had a pedestrian zip me up, grabbed my fins, hoody, etc, sans the rest of the dive gear, and hauled a$$ in to the water.
I got out to the diver, and he was yelling that someone was down at the second boat. I asked him if he was okay, and he said yes. I asked him if he could dive, and he said, "Yes, except I don't have a mask." I gave him my mask, and told him, "Okay. I need you to go back down there and get him. Can you do that?" He stopped, thought about it, then said, "Yes." This was good, and time saving.
I gave him my mask, and began yelling at Jared, who was on the beach at this point, to get divers in the water. Jared gave me the okay, and began running back to the parking lot. I turned to the diver, checked him over to make sure he was good, and sent him on his way.
This was probably the scariest part of the event. I had no idea what was going on, and I was only 70+ feet away from it, and not able to do anything, because I didn't have my gear on. I floated there, watching the bubbles, and thought to myself, "Sirens already?!? Wow." This lasted about 7 seconds.
I hear a splash, and turn around. There is a diver who is spitting his reg out of his mouth, and screaming for someone to help him. He's carrying a body.
I swim to him, and immediately grab the victim, while asking the diver if he's okay. The diver responds with, "I need a second. I'm good, but I need to breathe." I tell him to relax, and hold on to me. I begin finning the two of them back in to the beach. The victim does not have his BCD one. The other diver tells me he got him out of it, and brought him to the top. I asked the diver to attach his BCD hose to the victims inflator, and to put some air in to his drysuit. I crank the exhaust valve down, and the diver adds enough air so I don't have to keep him afloat.
I have the diver release the bcd hose, and ask him to help by pushing the diver in. The diver asks me if we want to begin CPR. I hear the sirens in the background, super close, and look at the diver. Foam. "No, the paramedics are on the beach, let's get him there."
Before I know it, I'm laying on my back in about a foot of water with the victim on me, and the diver flopping around, trying to get his balance in his panic. I look up, and see the paramedics come out. One of them asks me, "Is he moving?" I respond with, "He's unresponsive. Has been from the start.", "Okay, thanks!" They grab the victim and haul him over me, and out of the water. I flip around, look at the diver who is looking at me (Scared *****less, but this man is already a hero in my mind for what he's had to put up with). I put out my hands in the "Stop everything" motion. He stops moving. I look at him. He looks at me. He sits down.
At this point Bill is in the water. He comes up to me, and asks, "How's it going, what do I need to do?" I scan the horizon to see if the other diver has surfaced yet. He hasn't. Almost on cue, a man up on the MAST rail yells, "I see his bubbles!". I ask Bill to head out, and find the other diver, and to follow the mans finger. The man points to the bubbles, and stays pointing while Bill begins to head out. (I know you'll never read this, but thank you, sir.)
I look at the other diver, as he is calmly removing his fins. I see the adrenaline just leaving his body, so I tell him to go ahead, get out of the water, and talk to the medics (they search for signs of DCS). He heads out.
As I look back across the horizon, I see the other diver has surfaced, signs the okay, but then goes flat on his back. Bill is trying to get to him. I figure I may move faster because I don't have all the gear on, so I strike back out, and shoot to the diver. Bill asks me if I got him, i flip the Okay.
I grab the other diver, and ask him how he's doing. He says "I'm okay, I just need to rest for a bit". He's in shock. his voice is stale, and he's moving like he's in a dreamlike state.
I tell him, "Relax, I'll pull you in." We begin to head in. Bill is past the pier, and we pull in underneath. I have the diver stand up, and breathe, take his fins, and we walk in. Bill this whole time is communicating the situation in the water with the paramedics.
I keep the diver talking. He looks at me with this look that I just seemed to know what it meant. I look him square in the eyes, and tell him, "We all sign up for this." He nods. The medic, and the officer in charge come over to him. I make sure he's stable, and I head over to the diver who brought the victim up, and Jared, who is speaking with him.
Let me tell you about the diver who brought the vic up. He thinks he did just about everything wrong, but that man is a GD hero. What he did with his experience level was nothing short of amazing. I met him for those two hours, and I can honestly say that I'm proud to have known him. Jared and I spoke to him, and reassured him that he did everything he could, and he did beyond good. I think Bill would agree.
After he walked away, Jared then told me, "Someone needs to get his gear."
That must be us.
We went back to the cars. My brother in law gave Jared his fresh bottle, and we began to dress in. We got down to the water, jumped in, and dropped down to around 75fsw when I saw the rig. We hopped over to it, noted the condition (All good, no errors, defects, or crazy depths, everything was fine), and began our ascent. 1900PSI, 78-79fsw max depth, regs work, weights in, BC inflates.
We got topside, and carried the BC in. We told the medics what this was, and the condition of the gear. They figured at that point it must be medical. I remembered the foam. No pink. Heart? His buddy told me he was 60, right? I can't worry about that right now. not my place.
That's it. The rest was clean up. My brother began to carry the surviving buddies gear up, Jared and I packed his weights, and flashlight, and headed up the staircase.
From the pieces of the story I got (I think Bill heard more afterwards), the diver had an incident at 80 feet, and made for the surface, removing his buddies (Carl?) mask in the process. The buddy panicked, and started to follow him. The other diver (Mike, Mark?) grabbed the blind buddy, and got him to the surface safely. The victim corked, and then disappeared below the water. The diver then went to get him, while his buddy started yelling for help.
I was amazed with the people there who were making this all happen. There was this team work that was occurring that doesn't happen naturally. I'm sure this sounds all hoakey, and lame, but it was one man. Only one man knew him. The amount of people rushing around in coordination to get him out of the water, and in to the paramedics hands... I'm in awe of you all.
Jared, your responsiveness, and attention to detail required while contacting emergency services was amazing. Thank you so much for being there.
Bill, I never seen a guy get geared up that quick ever before in my life! I don't know what would have happened if you weren't in the water.
To Mike, Mark, or whatever his name was (Bill you remember his name?), you did everything right, and you didn't even have to. You could have removed yourself from that situation, but you didn't. You saved one divers life, AND you went back down to find his buddy. You sir, are more amazing then you give yourself credit for. I call that heroism.
To the buddy (Was it Carl?). I'm sorry. You were also one of bravest men I've met. I know you didn't want to go back down there, I knew that you were not in a good way, but you took my mask and made it happen. There is a feat involved in that, that most people can't even imagine, and you did it. You are chock full of Awesome.
To the victims family, I am sorry for your loss, but please know that there were many many MANY people, bystanders, and divers, who put everything they hold dear to the side to get this man to safety.
To my brother. Mad support skills. You owned it.
D(B)
Dafydd (Bishop)
