In water rescue breaths

[Cacia]

Finally.....I have done CPR a couple hundred times as a trauma transport nurse and when I was taking my rescue course I just had to keep my mouth shut about the entire towing the diver while performing rescue breaths while taking their gear off. Talk about fairytale land. And I hope PADI fixed that video where the rescuer is gazing off at the horizon, in the wrong direction, while he looks, listens and feels...

 

[Al Mialkovsky]

We timed ourselves in the shops pool doing rescue breaths while towing and rescue breaths while towing and removing equipment. We never tried it without rescue breathing.

Our opinion was to leave the gear in place if the tow isn't terribly long. Our times doubled doing equipment removal.

 

[Cacia]

the thing I felt was a stretch was actually getting the airway open. Getting the jaw and tongue in the right position is pretty tricky sometimes, even with an ambu bag and a backboard. I just never felt that the rescue breaths delivered on an ocean tow would be effective and that it costs valuable time. I have not done CPR or worked as a nurse for quite a while but, I think in real life, I would just get them to the boat as fast as possible.

 

[D_B]

I think the consensus is to get the diver to the boat/whatever as fast as possible to begin any treatment that has any hope of being effective , although, I think I might attempt the 2 rescue breaths when first surfacing, more for my own peace of mind, just in case your rescue is not successful

DB

 

[Cacia]

good point. I have had a couple freedivers tell me that they witnessed shallow water blackout on a dive partner and administerd a rescue breath that, for whatever reason made them regain consciousness and resume breathing, there in the water.

 

[Mambo Dave]

Based on my EMS experience, if there is a pulse then the breaths can do the trick. I never treated a patient who had drown though, but I've though about it often enough. It seems to me that first and foremost is to try to clear the water out of the lungs - two rescue breaths at the top before going for the boat may help this. Compressions on the boat may help this. Turning the patient over and rolling them on top of a wooden barrel would certainly help this - but who has wooden barrels on their ships anymore?

When I was a medic it was never stressed to get the water out. This seemed counter-intuitive to me, and still does. With a patient lying flat on their back, forced air into the lungs may dispel some water, but overall I imagine that the air would come out before much of the water. Despite my (perhaps misguided) training, my impulse, once on the boat, would be to aggressively turn the patient over and try to get out as much water as possible (Heimlich) or to do it while they are on their back (push upward a few times from diaphragm - the uncoinscious Heimlich). One can try to get air in all they want, but if the space is already taken up by water...

Has anyone had a more recent, and more applicable, class that addressed drowning?

 

[freediver]

good point. I have had a couple freedivers tell me that they witnessed shallow water blackout on a dive partner and administerd a rescue breath that, for whatever reason made them regain consciousness and resume breathing, there in the water.

I have also witnessed this on occasion and the real phenomena is that if a freediver passes out whether it is from ascent blackout or a hypoxic event (often referred to shallow water blackout), if they are surfaced soon enough, often times the contact with air is enough for their breathing to trigger. I have also seen the effects of stroking an unconscious diver on the face and yelling his/her name to trigger breathing.
As far as water in the lungs, when water enters the lungs of a conscious or unconscious person they will exhibit a laryngospasm. The vocal cords constrict and close off the airway thereby preventing water from entering the lungs. The unfortunate part is that, generally, the laryngospam relaxes and allows water to enter the lungs. Any water that may be in the lungs, however, should be considered inconsequential to the immediate rescue of the victim. Any airway obstruction maneuver would be frowned upon as it may induce vomiting in the victim and lead to subsequent aspiration of contents.