Post-rescue depression???

[lv2dive]

I really don't read the posts above in such a way that anyone - including DD or Flots - is blaming you or faulting you for what you didn't do. At least, as I see it at any rate, I think that the conversation here, is following the spirit of the forum from a Lesson's Learned perspective, in that the focus has turned to what COULD have been done differently. You have already mentioned some things you would have done differently, and others are speaking to things they would do differently - that does not mean most if not all of appreciate the fact that there are two souls on this earth that would not be here, were it not for what you did do! :yelclap:

Ditching expensive gear would have been the easiest thing to do in this instance. That expensive gear is certainly more important than the person's life. Not to mention that where we were that expensive gear could have likely been easily retrieved. It's possible it may have kept rolling on down the hill and ended up at a couple hundred feet but I doubt it. Even then it could have easily been retrieved by someone who was a trimix diver like these people were. Why not just ditch crap. It was the easiest thing to do unless your assuming that maybe she should have been able to play with her own manifold as a tech diver should be able to do?! This just keeps getting more interesting.... blame me instead of the diver who can't take care of themselves.

 

[Diver75]

First of all I think you did a great job. A few months ago I was involved in a diving accident. See link, I am the partner of the victim.

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ac...ccident-after-diving-gal%E1pagos-islands.html

After we were back in the Netherlands I went back to work. I had the same feeling like you, was depressed in a kind of haze. After a few weeks I went to the docter and was diagnost with PTSD, after 4 treatments with the EMDR I feel a lot better.
I hope you feel better but if you don't, don't wait to long to get some professional advice.
As for the comments some people give, just ignore the one's that upset you. In the months after the accident I was irritated very quickley. Just try to ignore, avoid things that trigger this reaction.

I wish you the best.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Ditching expensive gear would have been the easiest thing to do in this instance. That expensive gear is certainly more important than the person's life. Not to mention that where we were that expensive gear could have likely been easily retrieved. It's possible it may have kept rolling on down the hill and ended up at a couple hundred feet but I doubt it. Even then it could have easily been retrieved by someone who was a trimix diver like these people were. Why not just ditch crap. It was the easiest thing to do unless your assuming that maybe she should have been able to play with her own manifold as a tech diver should be able to do?! This just keeps getting more interesting.... blame me instead of the diver who can't take care of themselves.

My comments were associated with the idea of ditching negative gear; I'm not blaming anyone for anything.. I am a big proponent of ditchable lead, but some people dive negative rigs that don't allow this. Keeping the diver on the surface is critical. The bestest way to do that is the question...

IF it can be accomplished, iinflation of the divers BC would be my first choice (using a power inflator). If that failed, (as would be the case when the diver has their tank shut off or drained) then I would try oral inflation and then third option would be ditching lead, fourth would be cutting them out of their rig. If they were very close to safety like 20-30 feet to a ladder, other floatation, the shore.. then maybe I might try to sprint them over to it without making them buoyant. However, without swim fins on, you are pretty damn weak.

If I had scuba gear on and a working BC. I would try to support them with my gear and get things under control, before I started cutting their gear off and ditching it. That is one reason why I do not like the idea of diving with minimally small wings.. the extra buoyancy and capacity a larger wing has may be VERY useful during an emergency and make you more effective as a rescuer.

 

[shoredivr]

Cutting off expensive gear, that may sink down (and drag the diver down via a dry suit inflator hose, for example) would not be my first choice.

+1 on the drysuit inflator hose. As a general concept, not specific to the OP's
double rescue, a wetsuit diver may not be aware of/remember/ be able to locate the drysuit inflator hose and undo it before cutting off the BPW and tanks.

Well done Crass3000.

 

[boulderjohn]

Part of the title of this forum is "lessons learned," so it is certainly within the spirit of this forum to analyze the situation; a lesson is learned for the purpose of future applications.

That said, without being there to see and understand what happened, it is hard to say what lessons are to be learned. For me, the thing that stands out is a trimix trained diver not having it in her to make herself buoyant without any assistance. We are not talking about an occasional recreational diver who is supremely out of practice. When I think back to all the training and failure practice I had to endure before I got a trimix card, I can't imagine anyone who has gone through that being unable to deal with what appears to be a relatively simply incident. I therefore wonder if there is more to the situation that we don't know about.

 

[ianr33]

+1 on the drysuit inflator hose. As a general concept, not specific to the OP's
double rescue, a wetsuit diver may not be aware of/remember/ be able to locate the drysuit inflator hose and undo it before cutting off the BPW and tanks.

Well done Crass3000.

Other thing to watch out for is a necklaced backup reg. The necklace may break,then again it may not!

That said, without being there to see and understand what happened, it is hard to say what lessons are to be learned. For me, the thing that stands out is a trimix trained diver not having it in her to make herself buoyant without any assistance. .

They shouldn't even have needed to make themselves buoyant. if a buddy team in doubles can't find one working reg amongst the 4 they have between them something is seriously messed up. Could have just sank to the bottom,buddy breathed off one reg and sorted it out.

 

[boulderjohn]

They shouldn't even have needed to make themselves buoyant. if a buddy team in doubles can't find one working reg amongst the 4 they have between them something is seriously messed up. Could have just sank to the bottom,buddy breathed off one reg and sorted it out.

Yes, that too.

We apparently have a couple in the water, one with the air shut off accidentally and the other with a heart attack. How did it come to that?

For those who do not know about the level of training they supposedly had, one of the first things you are required to be able to do before you get close to that certification level is be able to reach your valves to open and shut them. For my trimix certification, I had to be able to open and shut all three valves in the manifold (including switching regulators appropriately as I did) in less than a minute. For my instructor rating, I did in in just over 30 seconds.

To give you an idea about the kind of things you have to do during your training, one time our instructor shut my buddy's air off, so I donated my long hose to him as expected. When I picked up my bungeed alternate, though, I got no air from it. The instructor had simulated something called a left post roll-off by turning off the source valve for my alternate before shutting my buddy's air off, thus leaving me with no air. No problem, I just reached back with my left hand and opened the valve--as was expected of me.

 

[flots am]

If I had scuba gear on and a working BC. I would try to support them with my gear and get things under control, before I started cutting their gear off and ditching it. That is one reason why I do not like the idea of diving with minimally small wings.. the extra buoyancy and capacity a larger wing has may be VERY useful during an emergency and make you more effective as a rescuer.

I routinely take a beating here for diving a jacket BC with a huge lift capacity, but more than once I've been able to float a distressed diver while taking a little time to figure out what's going on.

The extra available buoyancy is well worth (to me anyway) any additional drag. Also considering that I have three diving speeds, consisting of "slow" and "really slow" and "stopped", drag really isn't an issue.

flots

 

[Tigerman]

Shows how manure hitting the fertelising machine can mess you up even if it shouldnt, doesnt it?

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk 4

 

[Keith.M]

Crass, I am not sure why you are so defensive here but I would be willing to bet it is the same reason you feel the way you do. It is the same reason you came here to share it.

Of course you want to learn from this but in the end, you saved two people. Try and allow yourself to be happy and proud of that fact.