German diver saved - South Africa

[DandyDon]

http://www.thenewage.co.za/163257-1...fficulty_whilst_diving_off_KwaZuluNatal_coast

A 42-year-old German woman had to receive emergency medical assistance after she suffered cardiac difficulties while scuba diving at Protea Banks near Shelley Beach in Kwazulu-Natal, the National Sea Rescue Institute said on Friday.

NSRI Shelly Beach station commander, Jeremiah Jackson said the incident occurred at 09:46am on Friday
.
“It appears that the female was amongst divers who were descending on a scuba-dive when the female diver encountered difficulties from unknown causes and she surfaced and upon surfacing she was taken aboard the dive boat by crew of the boat and by fellow divers where crew and fellow divers immediately initiated CPR and raised the alarm while heading towards Shelly Beach.”

Jackson said that the Med-Evac ambulance services and Netcare 911 ambulance services were called for assistance.

“We launched our sea rescue craft the DISCOVERY rescue runner accompanied by a Netcare 911 paramedic and rendezvoused with the boat at the backline off-shore of Shelly Beach and observing CPR being conducted on the female by the boat crew and by fellow divers.”

Sea Rescue escorted the boat to shore where once on the beach paramedics were standing-by and the paramedics took over continuing CPR and administering advanced life support CPR on the 42-year-old German doctor, Jackson said.

“The patient was then moved into our medical room in our sea rescue base with advanced life support CPR continuing and in the sea rescue base paramedics continued with advanced life support CPR.”

Jackson said that during the CPR efforts in their sea rescue base, the heart beat of the patient was restored and she began to breath spontaneously, while paramedics continued with advanced life support resuscitation efforts.

The patient was transported to the Netcare Margate hospital by a Netcare 911 ambulance, with paramedics continuing advanced life support resuscitation efforts

On arrival the patient received medical treatment, and was reported to be stable but critical.

 

[DeepSeaDan]

http://www.thenewage.co.za/163257-1...fficulty_whilst_diving_off_KwaZuluNatal_coast

Sounds like compressions were initiated quickly & continued diligently for this physician/patient - just what we hope for in the pre-hospital setting. The "Chain-of-Survival" ( early recognition / early CPR / hand-off to EMS / fast transport to the emergency room ) is so vital for the success of resuscitation.

Remember folks, if you ever find yourself needed to compress a patient's chest, do so to the best of your ability, pushing hard ( 1/3rd the torso width ) and fast ( > 100 compressions per minute ). If others are available to assist, try to rotate care-givers every two minutes, as effective compressions is very tiring work, and the goal is to maintain excellent quality compressions as long as needed, with as few interruptions as possible. When professionals come along side, continue your excellent work until asked to stop.

Safe Dives Everyone,
DSD

 

[John C. Ratliff]

It is great to hear success stories like this--from an ex-USAF Pararescueman. The whole crew and those involved need to be congratulated!

SeaRat

 

[KevinNM]

Indeed, return of spontaneous circulation isn't that common, and certainly not after extensive CPR. Obviously they did a damn good job. However she still is deep in the woods at this point.

 

[GramsciBeat]

An update on the story from ehowzit.co.za and a link video interview http://www.ehowzit.co.za/news/local...-played-role-in-shelly-beach-diving-incident/


Roland Mauz from African Dive Adventures speaks to eHowzit’s Lencel moments after a near-fatal diving incident off Shelly Beach on Friday morning.
According to Mauz, who was on the dive when the incident occurred, the woman is an experienced diver with 246 dives under the belt.
The tourist is a medical doctor, Mauz said, adding the incident may be related to medication the woman was using.
The woman was rushed to an Umhlanga hospital shortly after the interview.
Medical experts who examined the diver after she had been brought to shore, told eHowzit that if it weren’t for the CPR and other efforts to resuscitate her by her fellow divers before the expert medical attention arrived, the diver would not have survived.

 

[DiveGusto]

The German tourist rescued after a diving incident off Shelly Beach last Friday died in hospital on Tuesday.
The woman, a 42-year-old medical doctor, was diving at about ten metres when she went into distress.
Paramedics performed advanced life support and resuscitated the diver, who had done over 250 dives, after about 20 minutes.
She was rushed to Margate Hospital, where Roland Mauz from African Dive Adventures spoke to eHowzit about the possible cause of the incident, before she was transported to a Umhlanga hospital.
The diver’s family has reportedly requested a post-mortem in order to determine the cause of death.

 

[Jan Kruger]

It is such a shame that she had died after being resuscitated at the time of the incident !

Condolences to the diver's family and loved ones. So sorry for your loss.It seems a lot of non stop efforts have been done to get her back to life.

Glad to hear that the standard of emergency efforts made at the time of a diving incident is still high here.
10 m depth seems relatively shallow dive for Protea banks. Friends of mine dive there regularly at depths of up to 40 m.