Helping a diver who passes out?

I have a friend who use to randomly black out and even had his driver's license revoked for awhile. This has not happened for several years, though now he is getting his certification. I do not think I will feel comfortable diving with him, though I am curious:

How do you handle a situation where another diver passes out underwater and may not be breathing on his own? What if anything can you do other than just bringing them to the surface?

Thanks.

hold reg in his mouth and make an ascent

brett

treat for an AGE!
See you topside! John

If he has a history of "randomly blacking out", he'd better be darn well sure that the medical issue causing those blackouts is resolved.

"Randomly blacking out" underwater is definitely not a good thing! Regulators generally don't stay put in an unconscious diver's mouth, and the odds are good that the reg will have floated out by the time you realize your buddy is unconscious. That means, that if he is breathing, he will be aspirating water which usually results in a laryngospasm - no air can come into or out of the lungs during an laryngospasm. If you try to surface the unconscious diver who is experiencing a larygospasm, the result is a lung overexpansion injury and/or an arterial gas embolism (which usually have bad outcomes). If the diver is not breathing, then he's going without air for however long it takes you to surface him, and also suffers the risk of a lung overexpansion injury or AGE, because you have no way of knowing if he is having a laryngospasm or not. Either way, it doesn't usually bode well for a diver who becomes unconscious underwater.

I haven't taken a Rescue course, so I don't feel qualified to give my opinion on how to surface an unconscious diver, but I highly recommend that you take a Rescue course if you are going to dive with this diver.

be prepared to be a solo diver @ some point in your life then-------If he goes, that's no reason for you to......

Seriously, the first answer is correct. You try to maintain the regulator in the person's mouth, and assist them to the surface in a controlled fashion. The outcome of bringing up a diver who is both unconscious and not breathing is not likely to be very good, unless you are quite shallow when it occurs.

Rescue is the class where you learn and practice doing this, and it's a great class to take.

diver 85:

be prepared to be a solo diver @ some point in your life then-------If he goes, that's no reason for you to......

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Owweee....! Brutal, but; probably prophetic none the less.

TSandM:

Seriously, the first answer is correct. You try to maintain the regulator in the person's mouth, and assist them to the surface in a controlled fashion. The outcome of bringing up a diver who is both unconscious and not breathing is not likely to be very good, unless you are quite shallow when it occurs.

Rescue is the class where you learn and practice doing this, and it's a great class to take.

Click to expand...

I heartily agree - take the Rescue Class - it is a great class and will help you in all kinds of situations, including self-rescue.

drdaddy

Any diver that loose conscientiousness UW should be brought to the surface with their reg in their mouth, no safety stop, and given medical attention. There is not a lot else one can do. Once on the surface if there is a wait period for a boat, or a surface swim one can do rescue breathing.

Rescue teaches this, and I recommend Rescue for ANY diver who has done enough dives to be comfortable in the water. I think 25 is the minimum for rescue, which is not difficult to achieve since one will log 14 between OW/AOW and Rescue alone. IMO 25 dives OUTSIDE of those classes would be a better benchmark, but that depends on the diver.

I figure the goal would be to bring the person to the surface as quick as possible without safety stops, however, doesn't that also put the person bringing the victim to the surface at risk?