Have you ever used your dive rescue class skills?

[wreckchick]

I've stopped more rescues before they became issues because of the awareness I gained in my rescue class. When I was working on the big boat I probably performed at least 1 of these "non-rescues" a day in addition to a couple more pronounced examples like "almost panicked" divers or "pretty darn tired" divers a week and at least 3 real rescues over the season.

Rescue really isn't about the big rescues where you get a pat on the back and a cookie, it's all the little things that you can see and react to before it's anything. At point during class there was a definition of a rescue that went something like 'you've performed a rescue everytime what could have been a very bad situation was averted and the outcome was positive' in which case I could count everytime I turned on someone's air before they jumped in with no air in the BC. I'm not quite going that far though .

R

 

[DiveMaven]

I'm looking forward to taking Rescue since I think it'll make my husband and I safer divers and better buddies.

 

[wreckchick]

It really is the single best thing you can do for yourself, your buddy and anyone you might encounter on a dive trip above or below the water. Once you've been task-loaded with a lot of stuff going wrong, any one of those things seems like a piece of cake.

Rachel

 

[Mo2vation]

More specifically (for those who have taken a dive rescue course), have you ever rescued yourself or anyone else using something you learned in your dive rescue class but would otherwise not have known to do? And if yes, then what was it?

The class is not just for Diving.

As you know, I broke my leg on September 5, 2004. It wasn't pretty. I was fly fishing in the Sierras, and I was walking across a footbridge at about 7:00 AM. It had developed a carapace of ice that I didn't notice, and when my foot hit it, I spun around and flew off the bridge.

In mid-air I remember hearing the sound of a broom handle breaking over a person's knee - and when I hit the ground at the streamside I looked and my foot was pointing backwards. I had suffered a severe spiral fracture of the tib / fib (tib in one place, fib broke in 4 places...pic attached for you Medical Discovery Channel types.)

At the time of the unfortunate incident, I was actually IN THE MIDDLE of my Diver stress / rescue class. I had read all the text, watched the bogus video (all taped at the Catalina Dive park... hee hee) and completed the course work. In fact, a couple of weeks before I participated in a class as an extra. I was "stand by diver #2"... so I was one of the guys the rescue student summoned to assist him. And on one exercise, I was "lost diver #1".

Anyway - I'd never broken a bone in my life. I'd never been in a hospital before... so this was all pretty wild. I'm in the mud in the forest by a stream (thankfully I had the presence of mind to toss my rod onto the bank so it didn't land in the water...), its freezing and my foot is backwards... not good. I pray.

I then reach down and determine its NOT a compound fracture. WHEW. (probably because it was a spiral fracture that occured when I slipped - leg one way, foot the other - and not when I hit the ground.) I DO NOT TRY TO STAND.... I run my hands over my head, neck and shoulders. All good there - no bumps, no blood. I then roll over onto my hip so I'm kinda lined up with the goofy foot. Immediately the pain stops. When I move, I can feel the bones clinking together... that is when the pain hits. Duh - don't move.

I call over to some other fishermen. They ignore me. I call to them again, tell them "I've broken my leg and I need assistance..." They ignore me (probably still hacked off I was catching this morning and they were fishing...) But their kids come over (10 - 15 Year Olds.) I put the kids to work:

Kid #1: Go call 911

Kid #2: Go tell my wife what happened. She’s at XYZ campground, space ABC. Knock in the tent, tell her I'm OK. THEN tell her to bring the truck over.

Kid #3: I need a stick, a log, a branch, a fishing rod case - something I can make a splint out of. I also need towels, t-shirts, etc.

Kid #4: Go get a sleeping bag. I'm gonna be going into shock and its already 27 degrees out here.


Kid #3 and #4 come back with their stuff. No splint material, so I take out my knife and cut a big towel into strips (this part hurt the most... it was a LA Dodgers towel he brought back... sadness). With the strips I tied one leg to the other leg very securely. When the foot wasn't wobbling around, I was fine. So I locked the foot and my two legs together.

The parents finally came over and I had two of them carry me up the side of the hill to the road. They set me on the side of the road and I wrapped up in Kid #4's sleeping bag. My wife brought another bag, a pillow (sweet thing) and some gloves.

I got comfy, tried to stay calm and warm and waited around for about 45 minutes until the ambulance made its way up the mountain to where I was.

The hottie EMT gave me morphine. WOW that's interesting stuff. It doesn't kill pain, but it makes it so you don't care... the whole ambulance and cow-town hospital experience (ambulance overheating, nurse ratchet spinning my foot around, etc, etc..) is the stuff for another story.

What did I apply from my class?

* Staying Calm

* Control the scene (this was probably the most important thing I applied. Being assertive and taking control.)

* Checking for real injury (like bleeding, head trauma, etc.)

* Immobilizing the injury

* Preparing for Shock

I can say with 100% conviction that this class (BTW - never did take the class... still need to re-schedule it ) and the preparation for it changed the way I handled what could have been a very, very ugly situation. I didn't cause further injury (which is easy with a tib / fib), I leveraged available resources and came through this whole thing in a lot better shape.

I was confident and in control - I know I would have been much less so if I wasn't in the throes of this class.

---
Ken

 

[Guba]

At least twice...
110 miles out in the Gulf of Mexico, my partner experienced a brain aneurism shortly after entering the water (he died on deck).
Two weeks later in Mexico, my first stage was 70 percent clogged with debris from the inside of my rental tank at 65 feet (won't use THAT dive operator again).
Both situations required what I learned in my cert courses.
Oh, on that same trip to Mexico, a little girl drowned in the pool. Another patron pulled her to the surface where I administered aid (breaths...she still had a heartbeat). She recovered in minutes. This still falls under "rescue diver" skills, although I'm also a certified lifeguard and lifeguard trainer. All of it is good info. If you're not rescue certified, I highly recommend it.
Guba (my grandaughter can't pronounce "grampa scuba".)

 

[Charlie99]

I've stopped more rescues before they became issues because of the awareness I gained in my rescue class. ....Rescue really isn't about the big rescues where you get a pat on the back and a cookie, it's all the little things that you can see and react to before it's anything.

This is also the most important point I took away from the class.

The next best thing to a rescue that is never needed because you took action early, is the rescue that comes off as just giving a fellow diver a bit of an assist.

A typical example is a guy that got rolled multiple times on a surf entry for his first night dive. When he finally got outside the surf zone he was hyperventilating, complaining that his reg wasn't working right, and drifting back into the shore break. "Just relax and catch your breath for a minute while I tow you a bit further from the surf". "Inflate your BCD a bit and you won't have to keep finning" "Let's just hang here and catch our breath for a couple minutes. Lots of stars out there tonight, aren't there?" After a few minutes he was calm enough that we could do the 40 minute dive to the exit point, which was a lot calmer and made for an easy exit.

While the hard core rescue stuff and panicked diver practice was both fun and instructive, the real value for me has been greater awareness of the mental state of other divers and learning to head off trouble before it gets too far along.

 

[Vayu]

I'll probably get flamed for this - but I don't think the rescue class is needed to prevent problems underwater. What is needed is a good dive plan, good dive skills, and a good attitude. We covered rescue skills in my openwater class such as tows, escorting an unconscious diver to the surface, BC removal, and excessive taskloading.

On the other hand, a rescue card doesn't mean that you are a rescue diver. I've been around rescue candidates and graduates that I would not want anywhere near me while i'm diving.

In my opinion, if you had a good instructor to start with or are marginally competent you will probably be able to handle most emergency situations you may encounter down there. A better investment of time and money would be a red cross CPR course or a DAN 02 provider course.

I'm not saying rescue wouldn't be helpful if you take it with someone that knows their stuff. On the other hand, I'm going to hazard a guess here and say most rescue instructors, like most openwater instructors, are the ones undertraining people to get into these situations in the first place. Thats just my experience and I could be wrong - bad instructors I have seen may be a minority. Somehow I doubt it.

To answer the question - I have used awareness to prevent other peoples problems underwater, like pointing out tanks that are not strapped in properly and pointing out giant, man eating freshwater squid that lurk just below the entrance to ginnie spring ballroom.

-V

 

[freediver]

If you want to complement rescue training, I would suggest to anyone to take a lifeguard training course as well.

 

[JustAnotherDiveBum]

I have used my rescue skills quite a bit in my diving carrer, mostly however as preemptive. recognizing stressors and proper preventitive measures so as to avoid a problem rather than having to deal with one. Accedents are rarely caused by one big main factor, rather a combination of small issues that snowball into a big problem. recognizing and reducing anxiaty is huge! looking for little mistakes as well, is the mask actually sealed on your buddies face? is the lp hose connected and functioning?,is evryone actually checking thier gauges? is there a real diveplan in place?, were contingency plans brought up in predive planning so evryone is on the same page if somthing happens?, is there a way to actually get ahold of EMS if need be? The only serious accident I have been involved in was a fatallity due to heart attack where I responded but had nothing to do with the dive itself, if I had, I never would have let somone so out of shape attempt such an advanced dive in such a strong current or atleast not have called the dive when I realized they were having trouble. I was able to correctly respond, egress the diver, start CPR, get EMS, and control the scene. Unfortunately it was ultamately ineffective, but I was able to do evrything possable to help the situation, so I can sleep fine knowing I did my best. The Rescue class is the best class out there for recreational divers more so for your confidence level and self rescue abillities which will come up way more frequently than having to respond to a real emergancy. If a real life or death situation arises hopfully there is somone more qualiffied than just a rescue certified diver but if not you know the basics on what needs to get done and if there is an instructor responding he knows he can count on having help to deal with the situation.

 

[wreckchick]

I'll probably get flamed for this - but I don't think the rescue class is needed to prevent problems underwater.

No, it won't prevent all problems underwater. What it will do is give you the confidence to recognize and react appropriately to any situations that do occur.

It's all fine and dandy to understand the concept of surfacing an unconscious diver, but I'll bet any amount of money that no one does it flawlessly the first time. I can't imagine having my first time be in a real emergency. I hope I never have to use that skill, but if I do, I know how, and that's what rescue does.

R