Actual Emergency Rescues???

[nitroxbabe]

I have been reading many sobering threads regarding how to handle emergencies/rescues.

I was wondering how many of you out there have ever had to actually perform any of the seriously hazardous rescues discussed, eg bringing an unconcious diver to the surface, etc.

Obviously it's one thing to discuss how an emergency should be handled, but what happens in an actual emergency?

What caused the emergency: diver error, "do-do happens"?

I guess I'm wondering how often "bad things" happen, how people handle actual emergencies, and what kind of outcomes you've had.

 

[devilfish]

nitroxbabe once bubbled...
I have been reading many sobering threads regarding how to handle emergencies/rescues.

I was wondering how many of you out there have ever had to actually perform any of the seriously hazardous rescues discussed, eg bringing an unconcious diver to the surface, etc.

Obviously it's one thing to discuss how an emergency should be handled, but what happens in an actual emergency?

What caused the emergency: diver error, "do-do happens"?

I guess I'm wondering how often "bad things" happen, how people handle actual emergencies, and what kind of outcomes you've had.

Yes, diver rescue is a sobering scenario. There are basically two scenarios, on the surface and at depth. There is very little to nothing that can be done at depth, have to bring the victim to the surface. If a diver lost conciousness at depth, there is very little chance of revival. On the surface there are a variety of situations and causes. It's not a pretty site, often very much different than what happens in a typical rescue course or a video. Rescue course materials are written by those who no longer dive, or non divers or never actually performed a real rescue.
The sad part is that except of instructors, dm's and ai's, only about 2-6% of scuba divers have taken a rescue course. Many of those that do teach rescue courses never had any rescue training beyond the only rescue course they took themselves as students.
Dive safe.

 

[MikeFerrara]

I have never had a real unresponsive diver on my hands. I have managed several panicked divers at depth and at the surface. I can remember almost wishing the were unconcious.

Once as a DM candidate I had to help a new diver on a dive in the gulf of mexico. The diver was too buoyant and fighting rather than thinking. By the time I arrested his ascent the instructor was there. There was some current so we had to work to drag him over to the line (to avoid going to Cuba). His budy followed us off the wreck and I also helped him to the line. Once all that was done I needed to find my wife who was no longer with us. I had about 750 psi left and in an al 80 at this point and we were at about 45 feet I descended again to 75 ft to find her. The situation wasn't critical but was unsetling. She was on the wreck alone and I didn't have enough air to spend alot of time looking.

Cause of the situation...New diver getting overly bouyant on a dive beyond their ablities (deep and current) with their instructor (go figure). My wife and I were seperated while I was helping the distressed diver which certainly isn't good but...

I have other stories but thankfully all ended well. If the thread keeps going I'll throw in some more.

 

[Walter]

Babe,

This reminds me of a series we had on Diverlink several years ago. Folks would post a real situation they had experienced, then let people respond with their ideas about the best reaction. After a couple of days, the person who actually preformed the rescue would explain what they really did. Perhaps something like that could be helpful here.

 

[devilfish]

Walter once bubbled...
Babe,

This reminds me of a series we had on Diverlink several years ago. Folks would post a real situation they had experienced, then let people respond with their ideas about the best reaction. After a couple of days, the person who actually preformed the rescue would explain what they really did. Perhaps something like that could be helpful here.

Great idea.

 

[WreckWriter]

I was crew on Key Largo dive boats for 10 years so I've done a couple of rescues.....

I've done many (100+) panicked at the surface rescues, a couple of panicked at depth, several unresponsive at surface (most of these turn out to be simple seasickness), and 2 dead on the deck of the boat (I didn't do the in-water portion of the one of these that started out in the water).

I'm 0 for 2 on bringing dead people back to life.

Tom

 

[devilfish]

I was conducting a class, we were lifting objects from the bottom with lift bags. I had my class in a group debriefing on the surface about 200 ft from shore. I keep hearing brrrr, brrrrrrr, brrrrrr, some where behind me. As I turn around there are four divers swimming. On of them was inflating his bc to the point of the overfllow valve burping. He looked exhaused. I swam to him and asked if hes ok. At that point his head went down and went unconcious. What would you do? I did have another instructor and a dm helping me with my class.
Clue, we did an ambulance and he was taken away by ems.

 

[MikeFerrara]

devilfish once bubbled...
I was conducting a class, we were lifting objects from the bottom with lift bags. I had my class in a group debriefing on the surface about 200 ft from shore. I keep hearing brrrr, brrrrrrr, brrrrrr, some where behind me. As I turn around there are four divers swimming. On of them was inflating his bc to the point of the overfllow valve burping. He looked exhaused. I swam to him and asked if hes ok. At that point his head went down and went unconcious. What would you do? I did have another instructor and a dm helping me with my class.
Clue, we did an ambulance and he was taken away by ems.

I would have all members of his party sign waivers. Then I would tell them about our standard rescue packages and any specials going on at the time.
Just kidding. This should be a good one. I see a couple oportunities for error here.

 

[nitroxbabe]

devilfish once bubbled...
I was conducting a class, we were lifting objects from the bottom with lift bags. I had my class in a group debriefing on the surface about 200 ft from shore. I keep hearing brrrr, brrrrrrr, brrrrrr, some where behind me. As I turn around there are four divers swimming. On of them was inflating his bc to the point of the overfllow valve burping. He looked exhaused. I swam to him and asked if hes ok. At that point his head went down and went unconcious. What would you do? I did have another instructor and a dm helping me with my class.
Clue, we did an ambulance and he was taken away by ems.

Well he's at the surface, and if I'm to assume that he is buoyant enough, I would turn him on his back and make sure his airway was clear (remove mask too), and check his breathing. If he's breathing, tow him to shore while removing his scuba unit at a minimum, hopefully somebody can call 911 while he's being removed from the water. If he's not breathing, same deal except give rescue breathing while towing. How's that?

 

[MikeFerrara]

nitroxbabe once bubbled...


Well he's at the surface, and if I'm to assume that he is buoyant enough, I would turn him on his back and make sure his airway was clear (remove mask too), and check his breathing. If he's breathing, tow him to shore while removing his scuba unit at a minimum, hopefully somebody can call 911 while he's being removed from the water. If he's not breathing, same deal except give rescue breathing while towing. How's that?

Ok...but...there are other people there some you know are qualified. Use them.