*Floater*:
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.
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Ken