Rescue Diver True Stories

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

FPDocMatt

Contributor
Messages
446
Reaction score
197
Location
Middletown, Maryland, USA
# of dives
25 - 49
I'm taking the on-line portion of the PADI Rescue Diver course, in preparation for the live portion which I'll be taking at Sunset House at the end of March. As I read through the rescue scenarios, I am impressed with how the course makes it so straightforward.

I bet when you're really dealing with a situation where someone is in trouble, it doesn't seem quite so simple. I'd be interested in hearing some true stories of actual rescues, if anyone would care to share.
 
'Rescues' can involve varying degrees of peril. Not all rescues are life-and-death situations. One time, for example, I 'rescued' a diver who put her hand right on a diadema spiny urchin. It's not a severe injury, but it hurt like the dickens, and she was unable to care for herself. The real-life 'rescue' involved getting her to the surface at a safe rate, towing her back to the boat, talking her through the event during the tow so that she wouldn't go into a full panic. A different diver on a fun dive forgot (somehow) that he could inflate his BCD to slow his descent and reached out to stop from crashing into a rock. The result was a bad gash on his hand. I had to get him out of the water safely, back onto the boat, and administer first aid. Another time, I was involved in the rescue of another instructor's diver who had a lung injury. I helped get her back to the boat, onto oxygen, talked with her during the trip to the pier where we were met by an ambulance, etc. Those three rescues, at least, were pretty straightforward in that all of the information in the Rescue course was relevant and helpful. Thankfully I've never had to allow a diver to wear himself out on the surface before he could be helped, and I've never been present at a diver's death.

I believe that a good deal of what we do in Rescue Diver training is preventative--that is, we learn how to intervene in a situation when it's still possible to prevent it from becoming critical. We tow a tired or injured diver; we control ascents; we take charge and help a diver break the panic cycle. Without these straightforward actions, a simple problem could escalte to tragedy status.
 
Last edited:
I was diving on a cattle boat with a group of vactioner types. near the endof the dive at about 40 ft a diver was struggling to keep his head at a normal position. Upon aproaching , I saw his tank at his waist behind him and trying to pull his reg from his mouth. He had 600# of air left. I helped him to the anchor line, went to 20 ft,, where i could stable him and return his tank to the confines of the bc straps(s). Again nothing dramatic however his BUDDY just kept a distance and watched the entire event transpire. That event made me very aware of Newtons laws of action and reaction.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Jax
I believe that a good deal of what we do in Rescue Diver training is preventative--that is, we learn how to intervene in a situation when it's still possible to prevent it from becoming critical. We tow a tired or injured diver; we control ascents; we take charge and help a diver break the panic cycle. Without these straightforward actions, a simple problem could escalte to tragedy status.

I think that the main cause of not stopping and taking care of a small problem before it turns into a big problem is fear of what people will think of you. I've only done 14 dives, but I've been in the situation of having a small problem and feeling reluctant to speak up about it on about half of those dives. Fatigue is a big one. Feeling that my equipment is not on right or uncomfortable is another. On occasion I could tell the instructor didn't want our class to take longer than necessary, so was reluctant to delay matters by speaking up.

As I go through the Rescue Diver course, I realize that I've already been rescued several times, in small ways.
 
I think that the main cause of not stopping and taking care of a small problem before it turns into a big problem is fear of what people will think of you. I've only done 14 dives, but I've been in the situation of having a small problem and feeling reluctant to speak up about it on about half of those dives. Fatigue is a big one. Feeling that my equipment is not on right or uncomfortable is another.

From my experience dealing with and reviewing accidents (mainly in rockclimbing, thankfully not scuba) it is almost never one major incident that causes an accident. It is almost always a series of small factors that combine, one at a time, often with the victim being unaware of the significance of them, that lead to a major problem.

The important thing is being able to identify these little problems when they are still in isolation, preventing the chain ever linking up. I know it can be hard to speak up sometimes, but at the end of the day I would rather risk my pride than my safety.

The closest I have come to a rescue while diving was when I saw my buddy get a face full of water and start to get flustered on the surface after a dive. Simply telling them to put their mask back on and reg in was all it took to calm them down.
 
I have had to reposition and tighten straps around several tanks over the years. Many of these had been put together by the boat crew for the diver.

They can be in a hurry, so CHECK your gear even if you don't assemble it yourself.
 
Yes and no, it can be very straightforward or it could require some quick thinking on the spot.

I think it would be hard to find a textbook rescue in real life, there will always be a slight variation in real life. Sometimes when participating in a rescue or an assist, the solutions feel like they just present themselves to you. Other times you sit there after the fact, and wonder what you could have done better or differently to make the rescue go smoother.

Not all rescues involve a major event, just preventing or fixing small problems can avoid the whole situation of having to perform a life-saving rescue, so in that aspect you could say you rescued a diver from having to be rescued. You'll probably hear this or some version of it many times, "the best rescue is one that never has to happen".

I've had a few experiences where I have assisted another diver and probably prevented a situation a from deteriorating to the point of a rescue.
Recently in a pool session I was going over reg recovers with a few basic students. One was performing the over-the-shoulder reg recover and couldn't reach his hose. So I presented my octo in front of him, he chose to continue trying and didn't take it, so I waited for him to stop blowing bubbles before I gently pushed the octo into his mouth.

Another time on a boat dive, my buddy started to have a nose bleed on our safety stop. We were hanging on the anchor line when I motioned to her nose. She did a mask clear then signaled that she Wasn't OK. I asked her to signal what wasn't OK and she just flailed her arm once, from her head to her feet. Not understanding I tilted my thumb up then down to signal that it was her call whether we stay or ascend. She chose to thumb the rest of the safety stop. On the boat she told me that she wasn't feeling right, all over and had an equalization issue early in the dive.

Both situations were pretty straightforward. But there are other times when it's not quite so.
We have this local beach called Monastery that has notorious waves which will tumble you and spit you out covered in pebble sized pieces of sand. It's very hard to regain your footing if you do get tumbled, especially on scuba.

I was there with two instructors, several rescue divers, 3 other DMT's (I myself was a DMT), and 20 basic students; for a skin dive session. During our debrief (in street clothes) we watched one team get tumbled in the waves, one diver was being rescued by another while the third was waiting past the surf zone. We sat there and watched for quite some time. The assisting diver looked like he was in control, but he had trouble getting the other diver to climb up the beach slope to make an exit.
At one point our two instructors, along with 2 DMT's and a rescue diver, rushed out to assist. The entire class (around 30 people) would have followed had one of our DMT's not stopped them. When we got on site, half of us stopped to survey the waves that were coming in to break, the other half rushed right in and grabbed the diver in need of rescue. They immediately had to let go and backed off as a wave came crashing in. Three of us ended up pulling the diver out before the next wave crashed. Happy ending, we continued with a more serious debrief with the rest of the class. Even today though, we still talk about what we could have done differently.
 
As others have mentioned, the vast majority of "rescues" are simply problem solving.

Our good friend (and new dive addict) Kim indicated she was feeling some difficulty breathing, very early in a dive. I checked her SPG and noticed that it was fluctuating. Opened her tank valve the rest of the way, and all was fine.

Diving in the cavern zone of Chac Mool in 2009, I felt something tugging at my fin, as if I'd caught it on something. I looked back, and there was another diver. Separated from his group, no light, and not sensible enough to head to an exit (which are always within sight, in the cavern zone). I tucked him in front of me in our group (I was last in line) checked to make sure he wasn't low on gas, and handed him a backup light. Since there was no emergent need to exit, our newly expanded group headed for the main exit, and a few minutes later we actually encountered the divers wife and guide coming back, looking for him.

Both events occured before I'd actually taken the rescue course.
 
Real scenarios are indeed much different from the book . . .

One reaction to stress not talked about much is "Freeze" as a third alternative to fight and flight. I've seen individuals (trained pros) go into denial instead of going into action.

The amount of adrenaline that hits you when you realize the severity of a real emergency can be temporarily disabling.

If you're the senior on site, delegate. Don't try to do it all yourself. But verify that you're choosing the right people.

You can delegate authority but not responsibility.

Take your time. Minutes count, but seconds do not. Get all the information you can before you create a plan.

As you work through a practice rescue scenario on shore, imagine that you can't be heard above the sounds of helicopters, ambulance sirens, and questions from onlookers. And that you can't see what you're doing because so many onlookers are trying to get cellphone videos of the victim.
 
Touch wood nothing bad has ever happened to me; sure I've managed to nail myself a few times, dropped cylinders and mis-timed exits in heavy surf had left their mark on my frame. But helping someone...

Honestly the closest I came was during a large OW class. My group were still on the boat, but the other guy's had just descended; I was waiting in the water for my group. Then one of the group popped to the surface screaming 'my ear, my ear'. It was strange. The first words out of my mouth were 'drop your weights, inflate your bcd' (like I have Rescue Diver Tourettes!). It was automatic, I circled around behind him and then helped to get him back to the boat. Nothing exceptional. I just found it odd how ingrained everything was; and trust me my Rescue Diver course was BAD!!! (luckily my AI course with my boss was a like boot camp and she brought me up to speed)

Anyway. I'd love to tell you of awesome heroics. But that's the closest I've ever come.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/teric/

Back
Top Bottom