Seattle Diver Death

[jeckyll]

My thoughts go out to the friends and family and also those involved in the rescue.

I had a good friend who recently went through something similar and was quite shook up by it when the person didn't make it. It's tough for all involved including those that tried to help...

Bjorn

 

[crosing]

I have a question regarding encountering a nonresponsive diver on the surface. PADI procedure would be to establish buoyancy, take the mask off, reg out (if still in). Take 10 seconds to assess if breathing by doing look, listen and feel. If not breathing then give two initializing breaths and then begin rescue breathing 1 breath every 5 seconds, while transporting the person to shore and possibly removing their equipment if possible.

Anyone ever do this? What do you all think of that procedure?

 

[diver-dad]

I haven't seen any news since the original story.

Do we know any more about what happened?

A terrible thing.

Thanks!

 

[lamont]

I have a question regarding encountering a nonresponsive diver on the surface. PADI procedure would be to establish buoyancy, take the mask off, reg out (if still in). Take 10 seconds to assess if breathing by doing look, listen and feel. If not breathing then give two initializing breaths and then begin rescue breathing 1 breath every 5 seconds, while transporting the person to shore and possibly removing their equipment if possible.

Anyone ever do this? What do you all think of that procedure?

what we learned on tuesday was:

1. don't remove their equipment 'if possible': *immediately* remove their equipment, *period*. you have to get them out of the water and getting all their equipment off ASAP will speed that whole process up and you'll be able to tow them a lot faster and get them out a lot easier. we didn't do this correctly.

2. rescue breathing won't do a whole lot of good if their heart isn't pumping and you can't do chest compression in the water (in the recent change to the CPR guidelines on dry land, they even suggest not doing rescue breathing in favor of chest compressions). focus on getting them to land and starting CPR. do the rescue breathing if possible, but you will likely be so stressed that I would suggest forgetting about it. this is particularly true at a site like alki where emergency response will be there quickly and its best to focus on just getting them out of the water. also, they're likely to be spitting up some fairly nasty stuff and you probably dont have a pocket mask...

 

[lundysd]

Crosing,

That's what is taught currently, but remember the 20% rule is often in effect in situations such as this (your IQ becomes 20% of normal). If it were me in a situation such as this, I'd get him or her buoyant and drop weights, give 2 packing breaths if not breathing, and then haul *** back to the shore. If the diver were far from shore, then the rescue breathing becomes more of a factor. There have been several debates about whether or not rescue breathing helps in this situation, so YMMV

The rescue in question was performed in a different manner, with 2 very experienced divers scootering the victim to shore. This was a bit improvised, but the divers by all accounts did a phenomenal job with it. Each rescue is going to be a bit different, but practicing the basic skills should help ingrain the steps in your mind (the whole muscle memory thing)

Note: this is just an opinion of a relatively-inexperienced rescuer, so please take it with a grain of salt

 

[lamont]

I haven't seen any news since the original story.

Do we know any more about what happened?

A terrible thing.

Thanks!

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=151136
http://www.northwestdiver.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6607

 

[Cacia]

*immediately* remove their equipment,

tank and bcd, or everything?

 

[lamont]

tank and bcd, or everything?

not the exposure protection, just the tank, bcd and weights.

 

[crosing]

Thanks Lamont and Lundysd for your responses.

The reason I asked was that I took the PADI Rescue class 2.5 years ago and am now in Divemaster training. This weekend I was helping out with a Rescue Class and attempted my underwater non responsive ascent, rescue and tow. I had a heck of a time trying to coordinate the breathing with taking the equipment off while towing them in. I was wondering how realistic this would be in an actual situation. Your responses have clarified this for me.

 

[mdb]

what we learned on tuesday was:

1. don't remove their equipment 'if possible': *immediately* remove their equipment, *period*. you have to get them out of the water and getting all their equipment off ASAP will speed that whole process up and you'll be able to tow them a lot faster and get them out a lot easier. we didn't do this correctly.

2. rescue breathing won't do a whole lot of good if their heart isn't pumping and you can't do chest compression in the water (in the recent change to the CPR guidelines on dry land, they even suggest not doing rescue breathing in favor of chest compressions). focus on getting them to land and starting CPR. do the rescue breathing if possible, but you will likely be so stressed that I would suggest forgetting about it. this is particularly true at a site like alki where emergency response will be there quickly and its best to focus on just getting them out of the water. also, they're likely to be spitting up some fairly nasty stuff and you probably dont have a pocket mask...

Lamont: I join crosing and others in thanking you for this honest and informative post.