Who has performed a rescue?

[Erich S]

Many years ago on a dive trip to salvage wagon wheels from a flooded mine in northern Wisconsin, my instructor would run me through my AOW certification check out dives if I would help him with the salvage. Once we swam to the site of the wheels, I noticed that my instructor was in distress. We were both on the surface about 200 yards from shore and I noticed that he was turning blue. I rushed over to his location and he told me that he was having a heart attack. I put air into his BC vest and I ditched both of our tanks and I got him to shore safely. We rushed to the hospital were he later recovered. We went back and salvaged the wheels. To say the least, I never thought that a real life rescue would be involved in my AOW check out dives.

 

[BoltSnap]

Did he have a real heart attack?

 

[Erich S]

Yes he did. He was in the hospital for 3 weeks.

 

[flyboy08]

Good for you! Dropping a tank is not part of rescue training. Inflating the BC and then dropping weights if necessary is appropriate. Did this cause you to get your rescue diver certification?

 

[Killerflyingbugs]

I have saved 3 panicking swimmers, all when I was in dive school. 2 where the same guy about a week apart ant the other one was a guy that I didn't care for but I would have felt bad letting him drown. Panicking swimmers are dangerous and try to drown you, I was taught that if you cant calm them down by talking to them then you try to knock them out with a punch to the head, I didn't knock them out but the punch to the face did knock some sense into them and they quit freaking out. I was quite surprised how well it worked.

 

[Erich S]

No this was back in the late 70s and there was no such cert then but I did get my AOW.
Interesting to note that we had to be CPR certified to get our Basic Scuba cert.

After ditching both of our tanks I used the cross chest carry technique to get him to shore. Luckily he was very cooperative and didn't fight me. Again,not something that I expected during my check out dives!

 

[Killerflyingbugs]

Interesting to note that we had to be CPR certified to get our Basic Scuba cert.

I can't figure out why it isn't (I think every one who can physically do it should)

 

[Pullnglide]

I've had 2 incidents with the same person. The first we were in a large quarry where he became overexerted and as we surfaced he forgot to inflate his bc, then went on the verge of panic. He kept dropping below the surface and he couldn't recover so I intervened, got to him and inflated his bc. By that point he was spent. I ended up towing him back to the dock, about 75 yards. The 2nd time was in open ocean where he went OOA. He never panicked. I was right beside him on a free ascent safety stop. I noticed him make an unusual jerk motion. I asked if he was OOA and he replied yes. I don't know what he was thinking by not telling me he was and can't believe he didn't bolt. I got him on my secondary, we finished the stop and surfaced with no further problems.

 

[Erich S]

Agree, it seems that the training years ago was possibly more intense?

 

[Killerflyingbugs]

That seems to be the consensus.