Diver Dies in East Tennessee

[UNDR H2O]

This happened at one of my local quarries.

Diver dies after becoming ill while training in Loudon County quarry : Local News : Knoxville News Sentinel

 

[Graeme Tolton]

Sad... However, it is easy to see this happening. When I did my rescue training, they were making us work hard. I would say that most of our group was over exerting themselves. On one of the exercises when i was the victim, being towed in receiving rescue breaths, I can remember the rescuer being stressed and out of breath himself.

 

[UNDR H2O]

When I was working on my rescue diver I thought I was going to have a heart attack! I was at Loch Low Minn quarry which is about 20 miles from where this accident happened.

This is the scenario. I lot my buddy during the dive. I surfaced to notice he wasn't there and descended to find him or something like that. I found him unresponsive on the bottom. It was around 50 ft or so. Since this was a real person of course he had his reg in so I didn't have to worry about keeping it in. I reached for his BC quick inflate only to find out he had a problem with it during the dive. He was wearing a dry suit, but was diving with a stainless backplate and steel 130s so he wasn't wearing a weight belt. Something had happened and his hose was disconnected from his dry suit. I fully inflated my wing, grabbed him, and tried to swim to the surface and he didn't budge. It took a full 2 minutes or so of me orally inflating his wing before he started to become neutrally buoyant. By the time I wrestled him to the surface I was panting and out of breath. Once on the surface I had to blow a couple more breaths in his wing to keep him on the surface. Then I had to tow him in while giving breaths and chest compressions, and removing gear if possible. Once next to shore, I had to carry him out of the water and start to adminster O2!

I thought I was the one that was going to need rescue!

 

[khblair]

this was an awful accident and i know the rescue divers and instructors that were there. there are a few facts that are not being represented here but i cannot disclose because of the ongoing investigation. my condolences go out to the family of the deceased and also to the rescuers... their grief is also very real.

as far as being overexerted and stressed during your rescue course.... thats the point. if it was a walk in the park.... you might not be prepared for a real rescue - as i know these divemasters and instructor were.

 

[Rick Murchison]

Just to reinforce what others have mentioned about the possible rigors of a rescue diver course, I've ended up "rescuing the rescuer" more than once while playing the "victim."
All participants - instructors, students and divemasters/DiveCons, need to be alert to overexertion problems during the class.
Rick

 

[Garrobo]

What Rick M. said. A few months ago the captain of the boat told me beforehand that I was to be the 'victim'. They had a guy on board who was finishing his rescue exam. Poor guy almost had an attack bringing me in from the end of the current line. I just sat there and smiled at him for at least 15 minutes while he tried to get his breath back.

 

[james croft]

Same thing here. I went from being a victim to having to tow my rescuer to shore. As far as I know his weightbelt I dropped is still at the bottom of the quarry.