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It just occurred to me that a memorable incident on ScubaBoard included a skipper's decision not to leave divers behind when he had to have been sorely tempted to do so. The incident took place on a drift dive in Cozumel, with the boat following the bubbles of the divers. Had he left them, they would have surfaced with the DM's DSMB, within sight of the shore, and with the potential to be picked up by another boat alerted by radio.
Why would he had left? Well, he had two groups--the DM and paying customers as well as a group constituted by his boss (the shop owner), her boyfriend, and a DM (fellow employee). That group had attempted a bounce dive to 300 feet, and it had not gone well. The boss and the DM were in obvious early stages of bad DCS and needed to get to the chamber as soon as possible. The skipper wold not leave his divers, though, and eventually the owner died of DCS, and the last I heard, the DM will never walk again.
I had divers in Deco on a planned deco dive, and divers who had aborted their deco because one of the 3 had a heart attack and died on the way up. Now, I sent the tender to the victim of the heart attack. I got the report back that the person was unresponsive 20 feet down. I had divers in deco under the boat. I had a deckhand in the tender, and one on the big boat.
My choice was to (of course) call the Coast Guard, because I needed more help than I had with 5 staff and 2 boats, and take care of the divers who were in deco. Of my (now 3) victims, one recovered with nothing more than observation, one got to go to the chamber, and one stayed dead. Cause of death ruled by the coroner, heart attack. 12 divers who weren't abandoned, all healthy.
Sometimes it's about cutting your losses.
To the person who asked about head counts. I can hardly get folks to sit still for the safety briefing, much less when they need to pee after a dive, and it may take 25 or more minutes for all to come up from a dive. I don't find head counts effective. Peoples names don't change, but many (by the end of the season) all look the same to me. Better to find them, ask their name, check them onboard than to try to herd the cats all in one place. That applies to boats with 12 or more divers, BTW. Smaller boats with fewer divers are far easier to manage.
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