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What constitutes an emergency?
- Thread starter tbone1004
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60plus
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What constitutes an emergency - Not being able to get your shoulders out of a front zip wetsuit when you are desperate for a No 2.
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No where near that dive count but never had that problem either.
Reminds me of a saying my old boss had - lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part. If you ever have the need to get out of a wetsuit that quick - you have likely done something very wrong such as eaten some dodgy food. That counts as bad planning to me.
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- Reaction score
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- # of dives
- 1000 - 2499
There should be another part to the "scenario" section of the Rescue course. Location of facilities for both normal use and in case of onshore emergencies. I have been in that situation a few times and always secure a plan A and plan B, sometimes even a plan C. Always be prepared--especially if in Nova Scotia and no human-built facilities around.
kafkaland
Contributor
Back to the topic, I like Boulerjohn's distinction between an incident, that is managed by a proper response, or becomes an emergency by improper action. Nonetheless I'd like to add to emergencies the oddball event that is so rare that you haven't trained for, and can potentially cost you your life. An example would be a cave collapse. I believe there is only one documented death from this, so it's rare, but I have heard a few near-miss stories, so it can happen, amd I would definitely an emergency. And yet I have not trained for that eventuality, nor do I think about it in my dive planning, so instead of a proper response I would have to rely on improvisations that ever happened. If it's on top of me, can I dig myself out while holding on to the line, or can my buddy dig me out? If instead just the exit is closed off, do I know the cave well enough and have enough gas to get to an alternate exit, if there is one? Or can I dig through the pile of rubble in time? Surviving such an emergency will require at least as much luck as training.
One of my favourite plan B stories is about a building here with 2 big power cables coming in from 2 power sub-stations. There is a room with huge switch that someone has to throw when one of the stations goes down and you need to switch the feed.
The first time that happened they found out two things: 1) nobody at the power Co knows they need to call somebody in the building and tell and 2) nobody in the building knows who is supposed to go throw the switch.
The first time that happened they found out two things: 1) nobody at the power Co knows they need to call somebody in the building and tell and 2) nobody in the building knows who is supposed to go throw the switch.
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