Have you been involved in a Rescue?

[cool_hardware52]

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.

Teaching divers how to deal with surf / swells / and the ocean / land interface is an under served area of instruction.

My guess is even a few feet under the surface, quite near the rocks that beat him up the diver would have found the conditions far more benign.

When it's nasty on top under is almost always a better place to be.

Tobin

 

[NC Wreck Diver]

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.

You did what you where taught. I commend your ability to stick to what you learned in your rescue classes. If I was in your position, I would have done the same thing. Staying with the CPR until medics arrived could only have helped him. Since the final analysis was AGE, it's very unlikely he would have survived. But you tried and did your best. Sorry you had to go through this. I remember how I felt on our unsucessful attempt for the victim in our accident (it was a three hour drive home for us. We were all silent). We had to wait about 1-1/2 to 2 hours for the USCG chopper and cutter to arrive on scene. The divemaster on this boat never stopped CPR. He was a trained EMT, and did everything he could. The guy never stopped. I remember how exhausted he was until he was finally relieved by the CG rescue diver.

As for cutting tools, the divemaster chucked a pair of heavy gauze shears to me and told me our surviving victim on O2 needed to come out of the drysuit. I had to cut his DUI off him. The shears really did work well. We really didn't care, but I knew the financial aspects of this was, especially after we dumped all his gear off him at the ladder and into the ocean. He certainly never complained after this was all over. Actually, he sent us all a detailed letter of the incident underwater (since we all really didn't know), and thanked us repeatedly for saving him.

I firmly believe you were thinking. You made the best choice in a split second decision (I remember the adrenaline too - it's impossibile to teach that in any rescue course). I know from your other posts that you are an ER doctor, and you made all the right calls.

Safe diving to you.

 

[TSandM]

Yes, I'm not at all sure that anything we could have done would have made a difference in the outcome in this case -- he hadn't drowned, and I don't think a primary cardiac event was the cause of death. And there were horrific logistical issues -- he certainly didn't get really good CPR through a lot of the time that the medics were getting him onto the backboard and up the hill, although everyone involved did the best they could.

But the lesson about backplates being good backboards for CPR in some circumstances is, I think, a valuable one to share.

 

[NC Wreck Diver]

Yes, I agree. I will always remember the backplate point. Thanks.

Safe diving to you.

 

[Dyno Bill]

Yes, a number of assists and a couple full blown rescues. I also was a member of a search group looking for two missing kayakers that were suspected drowned in a group of caves in the Channel Islands

 

[Scuba_Aaron]

A rescue I was involved in wasn't scuba related but included a young child in the deep end of pool. He was clawing at the surface and going under a few times, he appeared that he was doing ok but after asking twice if he was ok and not getting any response I decided that he was in need and assisted him to the edge of the pool. It was what I learned here about drowning not being a noisy, splashing, "help!" "help!" type of event but rather a quiet flailing that lead to me to believe that he was in trouble.

 

[NC Wreck Diver]

A rescue I was involved in wasn't scuba related but included a young child in the deep end of pool. He was clawing at the surface and going under a few times, he appeared that he was doing ok but after asking twice if he was ok and not getting any response I decided that he was in need and assisted him to the edge of the pool. It was what I learned here about drowning not being a noisy, splashing, "help!" "help!" type of event but rather a quiet flailing that lead to me to believe that he was in trouble.

Your statement is very true. Drowning people make no noise, and are basicly just trying to push the water in front of them in a futile attempt to keep themselves up. The whole screaming, thrashing above water, etc. is just Hollywood's attempt to make a special effect for media viewers. Glad you got him to the side of the pool.

 

[halocline]

I think I was. On my very last dive as a DMT intern in Roatan, a couple of new divers got on the boat just as it was leaving the shop. Normally this dive op would not have let these divers on this particular site without a prior checkout dive, but it was a father/son pair and the son was an instructor. So I guess they figured he'd be okay and could help his father if necessary. Wrong...Anyhow, it was a deep wall dive and I spotted the father blissfully dropping down below 120 ft, obviously unaware of his depth or descent rate. (why his ears weren't telling him, who knows) The son was nowhere in sight. I signaled him a few times, no response, so I went down and dragged him up to 60 ft by his tank valve, about 20 ft above the rest of the group. A little later in the dive he started to polaris towards the surface, I was able to dump some air from his BC and keep him down by swimming upside down hanging on to his hand. Since he was a serious air hog, we just did a stop and surfaced, waited for the boat. He never checked his air, I don't think he even knew where his SPG was.

I said I "think" this was a rescue because while I'm fairly confident this guy would have drowned or panicked when he finally realized how deep he was heading, to him there seemed to be nothing unusual about that dive. He didn't speak English so it was a little hard for me to discuss what happened with him.

 

[bilsant]

I guess the definition of rescue is somewhat open. I'm sure many of us have talked to a upset or panicked diver on the surface or in the surf and gotten them to calm down and focus. Likewise I've helped a tired diver or two with a tow or push back toward shore, or offered a friendly brace to someone having trouble exiting the surf. I don't know if these are rescues per se, but certainly should be part of OW training.

I done "official" rescues a couple of times...pulled a 2 year old off the bottom of a pool and was lucky enough to see him breath again. Pulled a couple of teenagers out of a canal in winter when they'd dove in after what turned out to be an empty car upside down in zero vis...both hypothermic to the point of losing major motor skills (alcohol was involved, too).

I'm not sure the official vs less formal rescues are any more important than the other.

 

[vjanelle]

Diver surfaced alone, treading water and was apparently OOA during an OW class. Nothing bad happened(he wasn't stressing out or in immediate medical danger), supported his tank with my legs and got him to orally inflate his BCD and he calmed down. Instructor surfaced and gave me an interesting look.

Never called for help, I had to yell at him (was with a group of recently graduated OW divers) to ask if he was ok.