Real Rescue During Rescue Training

[Art Vandalay]

I was geared up at the shore, about to enter the water for my second stress/rescue certification dive. My instructor was already in the water. My two classmates and I noticed my instructor helping a diver on the surface towards us at the shore. As they approached, it was clear that the diver our instructor was helping was disoriented and breathing heavily. Our instructor was talking to him and unbuckling the front buckles on his BC which appeared to be constricting his breathing. When they got to shore, my classmates and I helped remove the diver's equipment and helped him out of the water. Our instructor also helped the diver unzip the front of his 7mm wetsuit so he could breathe easier. There was another instructor who my instructor was familiar with that we handed him off to. We did this because my instructor already had some OW students in the water and he was familiar with the other instructor and confident in her ability to assist the diver.

We later learned from our instructor that the diver was part of a class run by a dive shop out of Durango, CO. Apparently the group he was diving with were kind of worthless. They either didn't realize or didn't care that he had surfaced unexpectedly in the middle of their dive. They finished their dive without him. The instructor we handed him off to noticed that his condition worsened in the minutes after he surfaced, so she arranged transportation for him the local hospital (only a couple blocks from the dive site). Apparently she was pretty pissed after talking to the class the injured diver was associated with, as they showed very little concern for his condition.

It was good training for us, as we got to assist in a minor way in a real rescue right in the middle of our training. Our instructor talked to us about the incident and the lessons learned from it. I don't know exactly what happened to the diver after he went to the hospital, but his symptoms were relatively minor and I haven't heard any bad news. I'm sure it would have made the news if it was too bad, so I'm reasonable sure he recovered. Hopefully he'll find some better dive buddies!

 

[CBulla]

WOW! In an off handed way, there is no better training than the real thing to totally reinforce the training at hand. Thank you for sharing the event and the outcome!

 

[Vayu]

Man, it sucks to be injured in a training environment!

 

[tstormdiver]

We had an emergency also occur during our rescue class. We didn't get involved (the quarry has people watching for signs of trouble at all times). We did watch & discuss what had happened. I have heard several stories as to what happened, so it's not real clear. Basically a dry suit diver had buoyancy issues with his dry suit & become over heated during a deco stop trying to stay down & came on to the surface. When he surfaced he was confused & also breathing hard. As soon as the look out saw the problem, the staff of the quarry swung into action to bring him in to shore & EMS was called. The EMT's treated him witth O2 & were going to take him to the hospital for observation, but the diver refused transportation & went home. Found out later that he did OK & had no obvious DCS. Lucky for him, coming up from a 100' deco dive.

 

[JessH]

Kind of reminds me of a pool session I was helping with. A buddy team was practicing air shares while I watched. Buddy A had just finished breathing off of Buddy Bs octo and Buddy B had just finished stowing it. Then Buddy A signaled that she was out of air. Buddy B and I were a little confused because we were obviously done with that drill and moving on to something else bust she obliged and again gave her octo to her buddy. They shaired air for a few moments before Buddy A showed me her pressure gauge which was at zero. Was a bit suprising that she went through her air that fast, but luckily she handled it well and hopefully she learned a few valuable lessons about checking your pressure and sticking close to your buddy.

~Jess

 

[mike_s]

Here is one for "lessons learned" during a rescue class.

I wasn't there, so I'm not sure of these exact details, but at our local quarry, they had someone that needed rescued during a rescue class yel everyone thought it was part of the class.

The partcipant in the class came out of the water yelling help. Everyone heard it but thought it was part of the class and didn't pay him much attention as they would let the normal instruction of the class handle it.

Yes the person was in the class, but they really needed help. In reality, crying 'help' was like 'crying wolf' as people thought it was part of the class.

The "lesson learned" here is don't use the cry of "help" as the emergency word yelled out in your rescue class. Use some other word, such as "hot dog", etc. Pick just about any other word. That way when someone yells help, it really means they need help.

 

[DandyDon]

Yeah, we used "pizza" and "hamburger" for our "call 911" drills, but I don't guess we had a code word for "help," so a real call for help from within the class could have gone unheeded. Good point.

Rescue class can have its dangers. My fellow students did a poor job of deal with my "narcosis" at first when I spit my reg out, I ripped the weight pocket off of a lady's brand new BC - offered to replace it if I had to but got it fixed like new for freight costs only, and my buddy kicked her hubby in the groin kinda bad - I guess he recovered okay, no offers of replacement were made there.

 

[The Chad]

Hey Art, did this happen at Blue Hole?

 

[DandyDon]

Hey Art, did this happen at Blue Hole?

His description seem to fit it exactly, with the hospital being so close.

 

[Art Vandalay]

Hey Art, did this happen at Blue Hole?

Yes it did.