Reliable Current Info for non-PSD Types

[Stirling]

I was wondering if some of you who regularly train and study these subjects could identify for me one or two (or several) sources of *reliable* and *current* information about aquatic rescue and emergency treatment of submersion and other injuries.

My impression is that most recreational divers, if they even go as far as taking a Rescue or advanced First Aid course, do not repeat or update that training regularly (if at all), but let it grow stale from disuse. In fact, I am in that boat now and am planning to remedy that problem later this year.

I realized how dated some of my knowledge and training were while reading Dennis Graver's book "Aquatic Rescue and Safety" earlier this year - with respect to the positioning of victims of submersion injuries, for one example. Before I go back to school on these subjects in a more formal training setting, I would appreciate it if anybody here could comment on Graver's book, if you're familiar with it, or identify other sources of reliable and current information about these subjects that would be helpful to recreational divers.

I would also appreciate any suggestions you might have about where to get this training other than from the usual suspects (diving organizations like NAUI, which is where I started). If there are other places to look for this kind of updated training that any of you would recommend, I would love to hear about them.

 

[Gary D.]

I was wondering if some of you who regularly train and study these subjects could identify for me one or two (or several) sources of *reliable* and *current* information about aquatic rescue and emergency treatment of submersion and other injuries.

My impression is that most recreational divers, if they even go as far as taking a Rescue or advanced First Aid course, do not repeat or update that training regularly (if at all), but let it grow stale from disuse. In fact, I am in that boat now and am planning to remedy that problem later this year.

I realized how dated some of my knowledge and training were while reading Dennis Graver's book "Aquatic Rescue and Safety" earlier this year - with respect to the positioning of victims of submersion injuries, for one example. Before I go back to school on these subjects in a more formal training setting, I would appreciate it if anybody here could comment on Graver's book, if you're familiar with it, or identify other sources of reliable and current information about these subjects that would be helpful to recreational divers.

I would also appreciate any suggestions you might have about where to get this training other than from the usual suspects (diving organizations like NAUI, which is where I started). If there are other places to look for this kind of updated training that any of you would recommend, I would love to hear about them.

Your thinking has a lot of merit but your request is a tough order to fill.

PSD training, and I’ referring to DRI, LGS and any number of agencies around the world, does not always mix well with sport diving. A lot of the training you received as OW, AOW, Rescue and others can be very contradictory with PSD.

I don’t know where you are from but my suggestion would be to contact a local PSD team and see what information they have lying around that will fit your needs.

PSD teams normally come in two forms. Recovery: which is what a lot of the volunteer teams are. It’s hard to be a Rescue team when you don’t drive an emergency vehicle. In Recovery mode things normally move at a slower pace more on the order of sport diving with some very special skills.

Rescue/Recovery teams tend to disregard a large percentage of sport diving training. There just isn’t time to plan a dive or dive a plan but there is a mental plan in place. There isn’t time to check and recheck your gear so it has to be right the first time. The list goes on but as far as diving style the sport diver should not mix in what we do as PSD’s.

One must remember that a sport Rescue class has nothing to do with PSD Rescue training. Sport Rescue is s good class that everyone should have but it’s not related to PSD. We get several requests a year from people wanting to join the team because they are a Rescue Diver. I think that mindset came from an instructor that didn’t totally inform the student of the true reasoning behind a Rescue class.

The medical aspect of your request could be answered by a local medical facility, Paramedics or EMT’s that are up to date on drowning handling and treatments.

I haven't read Dennis Graver's book "Aquatic Rescue and Safety" so I can't comment on it.

Good luck

Gary D.

 

[Stirling]

Thanks, Gary. In the interests of clarity, I should make it clear that I am *not* asking about this type of information with the idea of my trying to cross over into doing rescue or recovery work, or trying to adopt PSD equipment or diving procedures into my purely recreational diving. I did something like that years ago in another context (climbing) and it only took me a few experiences to decide I would be much happier leaving the rescue and recovery work to the professionals.

The reason for my asking this question here is that I thought somebody here might have some opinions about lessons learned - whether as a result of coming on to the scene where recreational divers or other amateur "first responders" had either mishandled or properly handled an aquatic emergency, or even as a result of other diving experience - concerning common mistakes or deficiencies in knowledge and training among recreational divers, and maybe some opinions about books or training materials readily available to recreational divers.

Thanks again for your prompt response.

Scot