What could I have done differently?

[Teamcasa]

Only you could have determined if the knelling diver was in trouble. Since he did not return your OK, You have to assume he is NOT OK. Having some method of signaling the other divers in your group and/or other nearby divers would have helped. A simple tank knocker, knife on tank, weight against tank all seem to get attention. As previously suggested a simple slate may have aided in communication. I would have stayed with him until I could determine if the guy was really OK, and I would have hoped my buddies would have stayed as well. What would they have done after reaching shore and found me missing?

Have a good plan, decide before what the attention call underwater will be and what to do if someone is missing. Low visibility dives require more communication and a better understanding of distress signals.

Dave

 

[Charlie99]

I think you did the right thing helping the other diver. What I would have changed was how you handled your group. Unless "A" diver was really moving along, which he should not be, I would have caught up to him, got his attention and we ALL would have gone back to the "distressed" diver. That way you have more support if needed, no one is solo and your inexperienced buddy would still have his dive team. "A" could buddy with "B" while you attended to the other diver. As lead in a straight formation "A" did need to look back more often. I check every minute or 2 depending on conditions, a quick glance between your legs is all thats necessary to check the team.

While not exactly the same situation, here is another thread where in a 3 man team a diver went to get the other one, and the distressed diver disappeared. It turned out well, but IMO it is another example of where maintaining contact with the distressed diver is the better course of action. If the leader is paying attention, he will come back to the two of you.

 

[ThatsSomeBadHatHarry]

Was it possible to get the attention of your buddies and taken them with you to the unknown diver? They could sit shotgun while you addressed the kneeler
edit: like herman suggested. missed that

 

[Adobo]

If the leader is paying attention, he will come back to the two of you.

Charlie,

You are killing me here man... The communication has to happen before action takes place. Even if the leader is on the ball, by the time he turns around, number 3 may no longer be visible. Communicating before acting completey avoids the situation where OP has to sit and wait for his buddies to realize that OP is gone. With divers not trained to do solo, avoiding buddy seraration has to be first and foremost.

 

[shakeybrainsurgeon]

During my neurosurgery residency, a professor posed this situation to me and my fellow residents: you are leaving a pro football game headed for the parking lot. Just outside the stadium, you see two drunks get into a fight. One drunk hits the other on the head with a beer bottle and the man goes down, unconscious. You notice that the man's pupils become unequal and his breathing labored. The police have been summoned, but what do you do personally to help?

Clearly, the man had intracranial bleeding, but before we could answer, the professor responded: I'll tell you what to do, he said, go as fast as you can to your car and beat the traffic, since everyone else will be standing around watching the man on the ground!

This seemed callous, to say the least, but he went on: what CAN you do? You are surgeons, he noted, not paramedics, not police officers. You have no OR with you, no scapels, no CT scanners...you are no better, perhaps worse, then the other bystanders there. If you get involved, you might get bashed on the head too, or make some mistake in emergency management. If you aren't equipped or trained to help in a situation, walk away before you become a victim too, or make a bad situation worse.

In this case, unless you are a trained rescue diver and are certain the man is in distress, what could you do? Staying there and trying to help resulted in abandoning your buddies, and could have left you stranded in low viz as a solo diver. The man might have suddenly reached out and pulled your mask or regulator out. He might have been psychotic for all you know. Most likely he was a student or inexperienced diver who simply didn't know what OK meant and thought you were being cute, or taunting him.

I have witnessed the unfortunate circumstance of someone doing CPR on an obese patient, only to have her wake up and ask why a resident was sitting on her chest? She was so heavy, and in such a deep sleep, that the nursing staff was convinced she had suffered a cardiac arrest (they could not hear her heart, feel her pulse, or get a blood pressure cuff on her arm).

The point of this rambling? Two-fold: 1) what looks like an emergency often isn't; and 2) unless you know what to do and are trained to do it, your first obligation is not to make two victims when there is only one.

Any follow up? Did you ever find out what was going on?

 

[Gradual Ascent]

Three diver trio... I don't like diving in three's "who is your buddy?" Alpha or Beta, who is Beta's buddy, Alphas buddy, your buddy, and finally the "distressed" diver's buddy, where did he go?

It seems you tried doing the right thing but your buddy (alpha and or beta) missed the responsibility part. Good effort, I hope the "distressed" diver is ok.

 

[HBDiveGirl]

...To me it sounds like the the guy was just finishing a nice pee. Sometimes I find it easier if I kneel and unzip. And I'm not sure if I'd respond to someone flashing the Okay sign as I'm zipping up. Unless it was a she, and she was hot. And she wanted to buy me a beer.

As long as "she" finds peeing whilst underwater more acceptable than peeing whilst on deck :no .

Thanks for the comic relief amidst this serious and well-intentioned thread. Well done!

Claudette

 

[redacted]

However, the one in the back (whom I assumed was the buddy to the other) was kneeling on the sandy bottom, next to the reef. His face seemed pale, but I didn’t know if that’s his normal skin tone or if he was cold. He was looking down and appeared to be fumbling/looking for something on his BCD.

Leaving our linear formation, I swam over to him and flashed the OK sign to ask if he was okay. He stared straight at me but did not flash an OK sign back. I flashed the OK sign again two more times, but each time was met with a blank stare, as if he was trying to see if he knew who I was. I also wondered if he understood what I was asking. Regardless, he seemed calm and not panicked. I didn’t know what else to do, and while I was trying to figure out what to do next, I noticed that my buddies were already beyond the viz range (20 feet). Then I saw a group of about 6 hooded divers, coming into range, and heading towards me in the outbound direction. Thinking that the still-kneeling diver and the approaching divers may be in the same class/group, and not wanting to become a solo diver, I left the diver and swam to catch up with my buddies. All the while, I was hoping that the 6 hooded divers will attend to the other diver if he needed help.

I think I would have observed his breathing pattern and any continued activity to decide if he was OK or in need of help. Based on what you described, it sounds to me like he was OK but uninterested in interacting with you.

I don't like linear patterns in OW - too hard to keep track and communicate. But I would have been comfortable with A & B taking care of themselves, at least until they go looking for C (you).

I would have been very comfortable with my diagnosis of the kneeling diver before I abandoned him.

 

[ItsBruce]

I don't have any issues with you splitting from your group. After all, Alpha and Beta were still buddied and there for each other. Once they noticed you were missing, they had a protocol: look for 1 minute then surface. If on the surface they didn't see you, they would have summoned help. Of course, if the kneeling diver was a distressed diver, it would be a good thing for them to summon help, even if they thought it was you who was in trouble. If the diver did flash ok, then you would have followed the protocol of look for 1 minute then surface and you would have rejoined your team.

The bigger issue is whether you endangered yourself by approaching the kneeling diver without proper training. If you lacked rescue trining you should keep enough distance that you can't be grabbed, flash ok and if you don't get a response after a few tries, you should have surfaced and sought help or sought help from the 6 divers you saw approaching.

 

[spectrum]

I saw this earlier but wasn't in a position to post. I agree with ItsBruce (post 19)

Staying with the diver would have been the thing to do but lacking rescue diver training you probably didn't reallize your potential peril or how to mitigate it. This all assumes that you are personally comforatable with assuming the status of solo diver.

Pete