A diver's doing no one a favor if he's at quarter capability due to stress. The whole stress and rescue courses are there so you can handle situations with a calm mind. Should they even be diving if they're so stressed they aren't be doing things by the book? Obviously situations differ, and you can't always do things EXACTLY how they're supposed to be done, but from what I heard of the recovery they towed him in a kayak, which is definately not what I was taught in my open dive class. Rescue breaths could have been administered during the transportation.
Once again, I didn't see it, but that's what I was told from the person observing. Maybe someone can come in here and tell me if that's what happened or not.
As for the filming, it's VERY important to document what happened. I'm NOT justifying what the reporter did, but I think we have to take a step back from our emotions sometimes and think about it.
When I first did my open water I do believe I was asked the question of whether to ditch the person's BC/tank/Regulator to the water and swim them to safety. I said yes and my instructor told me I was wrong. All of that is evidence, even if it IS cumbersome to haul with a person in critical danger, if not dead. Was there something wrong with the air? Was there a problem with the regulator? The BC? If you dump it there's the possibility it'll never be found and those questions won't be answered. Of course this doesn't have anything to do with videotaping the recovery, but it shows that you need to think about things, through the stress, and realize that it doesn't just end when the person is on shore/in a boat.
Basically, [/B]Was there something that could have been done during the recovery to help this man live?[/B] Take the jerk's footage and use it for good. I don't condone video taping people die because you're awe-struck by it. It's a serious situation and it needs to be handled with professionalism.
As for what happened, my dive leader told me that the guy was either on an advanced checkout dive or with an advanced check out group. He was having problems at depth, motioned to his buddy that he was going up, and his buddy tried to follow him but he was going too fast. The buddy lost sight of him (The visibility was horrible there) and made it to the surface, couldn't find him. Swam to the dock and from there they found him in the water with his regulator out of his mouth.
Once again, many prayers to the family and thanks to those who helped.
For one thing, a 2 day Rescue class is all about teaching self-rescue skills, and giving divers a few tools to allow them to help their fellow divers should an incident occur. It is NOT about making your average diver into a professional rescuer.
I have been a paramedic for the past 5 years, and it took me quite awhile (dealing with other peoples emergencies for 40 hours a week) to learn to function calmly and rationally under stress. It does not come naturally to the average person. It is just asking too much to expect a standard "Rescue" trained diver to function like a trained professional in a real and actual emergency. All I would expect from them is that they make the best decision possible under the circumstances.
No rescue scenario is predictable, and your reaction and actions must be modified for the circumstances. Truthfully, rescue breathing (even though it is taught in agency standards) just is not all that effective until the unconscious diver is brought out of the water. Have you tried providing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while towing a diver, and trying to keep their airway open, water out of their airway, and head above the water? Your progress is going to be ridiculously slow. Odds are, they are pulseless anyways, in which case, rescue breaths are not going to do a damn bit of good without chest compressions. The best bet is usually (again, depends on the circumstances of that particular rescue) is going to be to make the unresponsive diver positively buoyant on the surface, tow them as fast as humanly possible, while yelling for help. Once a few other divers come to help, the diver is going to be out of the water within a minute or so. If a kayak is available to bring to diver in, then that sounds like it would be even faster.
I honestly do not see how amateur video or photos of the incident would help...for one thing, unless the camera was rolling at the start of "Help!", then it would be a potentially misleading and incomplete record of events. Personally, I am not a very good photographer, and unless the photographer or videographer just happened to be very good...odds are, the film or photos might not be of good quality. The best thing for bystanders to do is to see if they can help (gather information, move equipment of the way, direct EMS, etc), or get out of the way.
As a paramedic, I always make it a point to NEVER armchair quarterback another medics run. Unless you were administering CPR, helping to drag the injured diver in, or participating in some way in the rescue, you can never know how you would react to the situation. Sometimes, you just have to make the best decision you can at the time, with the information you have available, and hope for the best.
My personal thanks to all who participated in the rescue. Drowning deaths (particularly unwitnessed ones when there is a length of time between the actual drowning and recovering the diver), usually have a very poor outcome. Even the best decisions will not bring back the dead.
