Have you been involved in a Rescue?

[xjeslesx]

We all read about accidents and incidents and hope to learn something from the stories that are posted here on SB.
I would like people to post about first hand rescue accounts. The point of the thread is to learn what triggered the accident and any lessons that were learned during the rescue.

Thanks in advance for your posts.

-Jes

 

[NC Wreck Diver]

Yes. In July of 1987, I was involved a rescue on the Marine Electric off Ocean City, MD. A diver drown in 120 ft due to his own stupidity. He came very close to killing his buddy due to total panic. We saved the buddy, after he shot to the surface with an extremely overinflated drysuit on. The diver who died had a 19 cu ft pony bottle on the back of his rig, who floated up in front of my face, when we were rescue swimming the first diver back to the second boat.

Lessons learned: Many..........but here are a few:

1). Use a necklace on your redundant air or gas. The diver who died had his pony bottle second stage dangling behind his butt. In his panic, he never thought about it. I have always used a necklace before and after this.

2). I always dive doubles. My rule is to always let time be your limiting factor, not air/gas. I use my doubles, and sling a 30 cu ft also. Many people laugh or make a few minor comments, but I don't care. They didn't see what I saw, and went through. And they didn't dump all of both divers gear into the ocean. There was no way we could get these guys up a boat ladder with it on. It's impossible. There is a way to use a rope up the side of a boat, but normally you don't have time. We did save the dead diver's BC/Tank/Pony bottle for the investigation. BTW - he dove the 120 foot dive with a single steel 72. Heavy smoker too. Our guys had concerns, since we had two boats tied onto this massive wreck, we were not able to make any suggestions or offer doubles. They had a divemaster and an instructor on their boat too. It was the end of a very large Advanced/Deep/Wreck class.

It's been 23 years since this accident. The whole process of getting these guys to the boat will never leave my thoughts. I think of this day every time I go diving, and I'm closing in on 2000 dives.

One last thought...I took my Rescue Class with the guy we saved. Felt kind of good to do that.

Safe diving to you.

 

[Superlyte27]

I rescued Jax's dive buddy at ITK's this year

Not sure what should be considered a rescue, and does it have to involve SCUBA?

I backed a boat off a dock on the 4th of July, thousands of people standing around as a guy plunges to the bottom of the lake. After no one came to his rescue in more than 2 minutes, I jumped in to save him. I got him to the surface, hand on dock, and arm wrapped around his body. He growled at me, hit me in the face and pulled my arm off the dock. Down we sank. So.... I sat there for a few minutes until he quit struggling. Then I brought him back to the surface, this time unconscious. Paramedics were by this time starting to wade in the water headed towards me, and when I reached the surface, firemen were able to lift his unconscious (but alive) body out of the water. He was easily revived. I made the front page of the paper.

I rescued several people when I was working in the Key's on a boat. Most were not emergent, most were just panicked divers. A few were scary. RIGHT COLONEL???

 

[spectrum]

Nothing that made the front page, or even close.

I have had some situations where I felt my training helped manage situations where a buddy was having a hard time.

In one case a buddy was under weighted forcing him (&I) to surface prematurely in undesirable seas near surface ledges. Some coaching, guiding and towing got us home to talk about it all.

Pete

 

[TSandM]

I was involved in an (unsuccessful) rescue attempt. A friend was doing a beginner dive with his buddy, and I was at the site with two friends, but I was not diving that day. Apparently, the victim signaled his buddy at about 35 feet that he wasn't feeling good and wanted to go home. Halfway back, in about 20 feet of water, he gave the thumb. They surfaced, the victim said something about not being able to breathe and lost consciousness. His buddy towed him to the nearby shore, which consists of a large boulder slope which extends into the water. At this point, the three of us who were standing and talking became aware that there was an issue a hundred yards or so away.

We did as we were taught. We cut the gear off the stricken diver (those sawed off steak knives go through harness like butter, when wielded with adrenaline). We dragged him up onto the rocks and began CPR. This was far easier said than done, as he was a large (approx. 300 lb) man and the boulders gave no real good purchase or footing. CPR was continued until the medics arrived, which was, I believe, a total of about five minutes.

Post incident analysis: We made a mistake in taking him out of his gear. Given where we were, the backplate he was wearing would have made a MUCH better platform for CPR than the uneven rocks we ended up with him on. (We had no option to get him to a better surface -- it took about 8 medics and a backboard to get him up the steep slope to the grass.) Cutting the cambands and removing the tank would have been a much better action to take. But we weren't thinking, we were doing as we were taught -- which is the other lesson from the incident. Under stress, you use your training, and it's hard to slow down and look around for other options.

The cause of death was, I believe, eventually determined to have been gas embolism, but I strongly believe, from the story told by the buddy, that there was some physical issue that ended up driving this diver to the surface at an unsafe speed. There were multiple medical conditions involved, although what, if any role they played in the incident was never clear.

 

[Pinto]

What the heck....I'll throw this one in for consideration even though it was not me doing the rescue. Two months ago I was diving a wreck in Fla with (3) other divers. Our dive plan was to descend in a group of four but pair up with a single buddy to explore the super structure. The current was blowing pretty strong and our dive was to begin at about 100'. Soon after we began the swim my buddies remote SPG stopped working so we called the dive off. The other two divers carried on with their plan to swim the upper superstructure.

Once back on the dive boat, our attention was called to a diver who had surfaced on a mooring ball 100' to our starboard. He indicated that there was diver OOA on the line. I recognized his voice as being one of the divers in our team. After a brief discussion we determined that the OOA diver was not with our group but was sharing air at 20' with my other partner.

Long story short. My buddies were swimming the wreck when a panicked diver came out of nowhere and snatched the reg from one of their mouths. He was likely a little narc'd and was pointing to the reg signaling a problem. In retrospect, we think he had the reg in upside down and couldn't clear properly. He was taking some water. He was also hyper-ventilating and over breathing the reg which made him even more uneasy. My friends kept him from making an emergency accent and started slowly up the line. At about 55,' he sucked the that tank dry. The first freind then did a controlled ascent to the surface to report the problem while the other buddy began sharing his air. After 1.5 minutes at 20', he drained the other tank.

Once back on board, the OOA diver stated that he signaled out of air to his two dive partners. They pointed him to the nearest line. According to his partners, he swam in the other direction. When we asked why they didn’t follow him or call the dive off, they answered that he couldn’t have been out of air because they had 1800psi and one of them responded that they didn’t want to leave the third diver alone.....huh? According to OOA diver (possibly narc'd at the time) he ran across two photographers and signaled out of air. They refused. That's when he ran into my friends.

My friends were all done diving for 24hrs do to the lack of an adequate safety stop ruining their plans to make (3) more dives that day. In my mind and in that of the OOA diver, these guys are heroes and saved a life. The OOA diver paid for their dive and was very grateful.

What went wrong from my POV:
1) You never leave your buddy!!
2) Calling a dive off is not negotiable
3) Know and dive within your limits. This was not a dive he should have been making.
4) Dive boat Captain should have administered oxygen as a precautionary step to the diver who surfaced from 100’ without a safety stop.
5) Dive boat Captain should not have allowed the OOA diver’s buddies to dive the second dive on this wreck.

Other steps I plan to take……upgrading my 19cu pony to >40cu

 

[Superlyte27]

safety stops are not mandatory. If you are no where decompression limits, and you have ascended according to proper practice, a safety stop, while it's a good idea, simply is not necessary.

Also, had this happened on a boat I was captaining, while I would have probably made a point of talking to the buddies in a manner that would have gotten the point across, while staying light hearted, I would not have restricted them from making the next dives. They paid for the dives, not me. And ultimately, your burden of your survival rests solely on your own self, not anyone else, not even your buddies.

 

[xjeslesx]

I would have bet you a $1000 that we would have two beautiful, flawless dives that day. I would have lost that $1000.
A group of 5 of us set out to dive a local wreck 90' then a shallow wreck 30'.
There was no planned wreck penetration, we were just going to go down and enjoy the day. The weather was perfect, not a bit of wind, no current, and only a slight swell coming in.
The deep dive was uneventful and everyone had fun.
The second dive was a wreck near a small island, shallow 30' max.
I believe I was the junior diver of the group, as we were diving with a couple former commercial divers, and an instructor.
During the dive I came a across a complete scuba unit (bc/reg/tank). I instantly knew something bad had happened and surfaced. By the time I came up one diver was crawling up on the island and another was face up on the surface with no gear, and not responding. I signaled the boat and they came right over. They pulled the injured diver out of the water and confirmed he was conscious and breathing.
We treated him for hypothermia and got him back to a waiting ambulance, he turned out to be ok but has not dove since.
Now for the facts of the case. The diver surfaced too close to the island, a swell smashed him into the rock face multiple times. His buddy saw what was happening and towed him away from the rocks. During the process the injured diver made to choice to ditch his equipment, probably to be able to swim out of the danger zone. His buddy made to the choice to climb onto the rocks, probably out of exhaustion and for safety.

Lesson to be learned:
Be aware of your surrounding, never surface near rocks or other fixed structures when swells are present.
Even a diver with 1000's of dives and years of experience can have a dive accident.
If you discover something wrong during your dive investigate it, do not assume someone else is taking care of the possible problem.... ie finding a full scuba unit.

 

[TSandM]

Once back on board, the OOA diver stated that he signaled out of air to his two dive partners. They pointed him to the nearest line. According to his partners, he swam in the other direction. When we asked why they didn’t follow him or call the dive off, they answered that he couldn’t have been out of air because they had 1800psi and one of them responded that they didn’t want to leave the third diver alone.....huh? According to OOA diver (possibly narc'd at the time) he ran across two photographers and signaled out of air. They refused.

FOUR people, INCLUDING this diver's BUDDIES, refused to share gas with him? I'm absolutely appalled.

This story, though, is why every time I think about downgrading to a smaller tank (since I routine come home with half or more of the gas with which I started) I don't do it. Especially when diving with classes, I cart a TON of gas into the water, because the person who may need it may need a LOT of it.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Had a student go into full-blown panic at 20 fsw once ... that wasn't fun. After he rejected most of his gear, he started rejecting mine while I was trying to get ahold of him. Couldn't let him go to the surface because it was obvious he was holding his breath. Couldn't get a reg in his mouth because of all his flailing around. It was nothing like all the rescue simulations we've done in class. Finally stiff-armed him in the gut, and as soon as I saw bubbles the two of us went to the surface in a hurry. Once I got him buoyant and he realized he wasn't gonna drown he went completely limp, took a deep breath, looked at me as calmly as you please and said "I can't believe I just did that."

Turns out he's real sensitive to water on his nose, and panicked because he thought his regulator was leaking. I worked with him for a couple days trying to overcome the problem, and ultimately refused to certify him because I couldn't bring myself to believe he wasn't going to panic again the next time he got water in his mask ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)