How deep would you go to save someone..

[alemaozinho]

Bodies will not float back up if lost in extremely deep water, such as below 300 feet. The gas expansion in the body will not increase enough to change the bouyancy.

As for saving someones butt, I have snatched a few divers below 200 feet, one at 240 on a Cayman wall and another at 278 in a deep sink in the Gulf of Mexico and assisted them back up to where they could think properly. But that was back in the deep air days.

I had one guy, that was so far out of it at only 184 feet, I had to take him by the shoulder strap and assist him to do all his decompression stops all the way to the surface.

Many years ago I had a guy pass out at 154 feet, spit out his regulator, so I brought him back to the surface. Luckly, we had just got to 154, so I did not have any decompression to do yet. He woke up once he hit the surface. He turned out to be OK, amazing I thought.

Most divers react different to deep diving, so its hard to tell just what will happen with a new deep diver.

I would suggest, if you are going to try a deep dive, sub 150', I would take someone who has been there many many times to watch your butt for you.

i,m so proud of you,,,,

 

[squicker]

I was pleasantly surprised about the lenghts that most of you would go to to save a stranger.

My own response to my own question would be as deep as I could for a stranger(regarding mix I was diving on and air left) and regards my wife.....all the way to the bottom, without regard to anything but the chance of saving her.

Now to throw the cat amongst the pigeons. How far would you hope your loved ones would go for you!

I would hope she would treat me as a stranger in that reagrd. Make an attempt but pull back if it gets to dangerous, but I think she would go all the way for me.

We dont have kids so thats not an issue

 

[miguel sanz]

I agree, I wouldn´t want anybody to risk their lives for me, specially loved ones

 

[deepair3]

...& evaluate the odds for success as I went ( things can change, for better or worse, but if I don't react instantly, the odds against success multiply quickly ). I'd take it to the point just before it would be sure suicide to continue, then I'd back off, knowing I'd done my all.

Hey Deepair,

Tell me about your rescue of the diver who was non-breathing at surface - sounds interesting.

Regards,
D.S.D.

Hey, It was a good friend who had been diving with me all year, helping teach classes. We dove in all conditions and all water temps. we had finished a class of ow students and were going on a fun dive. we were descending and around 30 ft she signaled me she was going up her ears would not clear. She motioned me to go down but I said no because she looked like she was in pain. at around 27 ft she stopped breathing and spit out her reg. I got her to the surface and found her not to be breathing. I tried to give rescue breathes and slipped. I cursed her and slapped her on the cheek. SHe STARTED BREATHING! I towed her 300 yards to shore. then put her on 100% O2 and took her to the hospital she was fine. DAN says they think it was shallow water black out. But no one really knows. It has been a year so she is going to start diving again next month.

Deepair3

 

[DeepSeaDan]

Hey, It was a good friend who had been diving with me all year, helping teach classes. We dove in all conditions and all water temps. we had finished a class of ow students and were going on a fun dive. we were descending and around 30 ft she signaled me she was going up her ears would not clear. She motioned me to go down but I said no because she looked like she was in pain. at around 27 ft she stopped breathing and spit out her reg. I got her to the surface and found her not to be breathing. I tried to give rescue breathes and slipped. I cursed her and slapped her on the cheek. SHe STARTED BREATHING! I towed her 300 yards to shore. then put her on 100% O2 and took her to the hospital she was fine. DAN says they think it was shallow water black out. But no one really knows. It has been a year so she is going to start diving again next month.

Deepair3

Pretty hairy D.A. Say, could you describe to me how you surfaced her? Were there any complications on the way up? What was your rate of ascent etc.? Thanks.

D.S.D.

 

[Seabear70]

For someone I do not like, and have no responsibility for? How much is their gear worth on Ebay?

Ok folks... That was actually a joke, sort of... Could we at least get someone to forcibly argue against the additude??? People are starting to scare me here with all of the messages of support.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Ok folks... That was actually a joke, sort of... Could we at least get someone to forcibly argue against the additude??? People are starting to scare me here with all of the messages of support.

I was at Gilboa once getting ready to do a dive (off the deep dock) with an Advanced Nitrox student. Just then a huge heard of AOW students piled onto the dock with all their gear and took up every inch while they assembled stuff.

I decided that we would wait until after they were out of the water. We've just seen so many problems with classes like these that I wasn't going to have my class ruined or worse.

There was another instructor there getting ready to do a similar dive to what we were doing and he also made the decision to stay out of the water until the herd was gone.

That's when he pulled my to the side and showed me the hand signals for "I'll come back for your equipment"

 

[GDI]

I never lose anyone, If they hang on to the equipment I'll be coming back for it

"(That's when he pulled my to the side and showed me the hand signals for "I'll come back for your equipment")"

 

[DORSETBOY]

I'd like to think that I'd stay within reasonable safety limits (ie 40m) and keep within ndl's etc as 2 casualties is worse than 1. However, in reality if I had the oppurtunity to help someone else regardless of whether I knew them or not I prob would try whatever the depth might be.

 

[Wijbrandus]

Back when I was in the rescue "business", we were constantly told that there was a ratio in fatalities. Usually a number like 4:1 rescuers to victims.

That means that four "rescuers" died for every victim.

I remember that quite a bit when I read stuff like this.

Of course, if it were my wife, I'd be one of the dead rescuers as well. No kids, only parents to leave behind, and I wouldn't want to face her parents if I lost their little girl in that way. After all, it's all my fault she's diving.