Deco obligation during Emergency Recall

[Akimbo]

I don't do deco dives off boats which have emergency recall proceedures. Deco diving is done off boats that have proceedures in place to eliminate the recall in the first place - in this case that would have been a chase boat.

There are emergencies that justify the injured diver on the larger, radio equipped, more seaworthy, and often faster and vessel. Having a chase boat left behind would be nice if it is already in the water. Decompression is really a minor complication in the scenario. A time sensitive emergency may not allow for recalling everyone and getting them back aboard, even from 30' of water. At least that is my preference whether I am left in the water or the one on the stretcher. I figure dead trumps scared and cold.

My comments are not intended to be arguments or criticisms, only part of a failure mode discussion. Thinking through viable scenarios and testing plans as we are doing right now will make us all better. The biggest problem in the procedure I described is avoiding running over the divers left behind.

Edit: We need to consider that the injury may not be diving related. In fact, it may be the captain who slips on a wet deck and cracks their head open. Something to consider if you are on a six-pack with no crew members. Several passengers should at least ask how to operate the radio in an emergency. Bad stuff can happen going to sea. At least divers are far better prepared physically and mechanically than passengers on most sport fishing and whale watching boats.

 

[Superlyte27]

I figure dead trumps scared and cold.

Akimbo, you are one of my favorite people on here.

 

[LeadTurn_SD]

I would suggest that if a captain or crew does not explain what will happen in an emergency recall, you should ask. Say I have some serious decom and you are found unconscious with lots of blood coming out of your nose and mouth. Seams serious enough.

The procedure I have like the best is:

1. Captain calls Coast Guard while crew gets you on deck
2. Recall is sounded
3. A cherry buoy gets tied off to the anchor chain
4. Chain is cut — hopefully between the boat and buoy
5. Dive master, crewman, or anybody suited up jumps in and stays with the buoy. Surfacing divers get briefed and hang together.
6. Boat heads home at full speed and hopefully meets a Coast Guard Chopper on the way
7. Another boat picks up divers in the water or your boat comes back

Extra charges for the extended time and bonus adventure should be negotiated in advance

Hi Akimbo,

I understand the recall procedure you described in your post (thanks for posting it) and have actually read of at least one dive boat needing to execute the emergency plan you described. I can't remember if it was a heart attack, but it was some extremely serious issue, so they had a DM jump in just as you described and hang on to the buoy, wait for the divers that were still down, and the dive boat took the victim in, then returned ASAP to pickup the rest of the divers (an hour or two later?).

Just playing "Devil's Advocate" now, but I wanted to throw this out for discussion:

I'm not sure that I'd abandon divers in the water, even if it was "life and death" for the injured diver.

Reason: It really seems possible that it could result in multiple casualties if anything went wrong after the dive boat left, such as deteriorating weather, if the diver(s) surface far down current from the waiting DM/buoy and go "missing", another diver has a serious health issue, etc.

It seems like you could be risking several divers for the sake of one.... I know that sounds harsh, and would be a terrible decision to have to make; if I were in the water, and I knew it were "life and death" for another diver, I'd be "ok" with the boat leaving... But if I were the captain, I probably would not be ok leaving until all divers were aboard....

Again, this is just for discussion, to present the opposite arguement.

Best wishes.

 

[Akimbo]

Hi Akimbo,...

You make a good point. I would probably feel quite differently if I was 50 miles offshore in the North Sea rather than a few miles off the coast in Monterey. In the end, the captain has to make a value judgment. That is one of many reasons a good captain is a lot more than just a coxswain (a person who steers the boat for landlubbers).

I also think about a plan if I am swimming along the bottom and run into the boat, maybe with another one sticking out of it. In that event I will disregard all recalls. Makes a good case for carrying a compass though.

 

[fisheater]

When I was diving with Reef Divers on Little Cayman, there were two underwater emergency signals. One was a recall, in which you were to get to the boat as soon as practicable. (No deco, anyway.)

The other was get away from the boat NOW! The boat would power up and speed away with the casualty on board. After the boat had left, you were to surface and gather up, as they would have radioed another boat to come and pick up the divers left behind.

 

[TSandM]

Richard, when you and Nick were doing a T1 dive off the NakNek last year, with a whole bunch of recreational divers on the boat, what would you have done had you gotten the emergency recall signal because somebody had corked and was paralyzed on the deck?

This is one of the issues with staged decompression diving with multiple teams. In our waters, you could put a float on the anchor line and abandon divers, but there is a limit to how long you can stay in our waters, even in good exposure protection, without getting seriously hypothermic. If I were in the water as one of several technical teams, and I heard an emergency recall, I would assume that someone was in truly serious condition, and I would take a long and hard look at how much risk I would assume to reboard the boat -- and where I was, and whether I could reasonably make it to shore if the boat abandoned ME. (In Puget Sound and the San Juans, that's often a possibility.)

Divers who have gone into unintentional deco are another story. We got blown off the boat in the Channel Islands a week ago -- but we got out of Dodge well before we were in deco, and we would have been okay for a significant surface float, awaiting rescue, had that been necessary. To fail to recognize current strong enough to preclude regaining the anchor line (which we had, but we KNEW it) long enough to go into deco, is a significant failure of situational awareness, to me.

 

[peterbj7]

When I was diving with Reef Divers on Little Cayman, there were two underwater emergency signals. One was a recall, in which you were to get to the boat as soon as practicable. (No deco, anyway.)

The other was get away from the boat NOW! The boat would power up and speed away with the casualty on board. After the boat had left, you were to surface and gather up, as they would have radioed another boat to come and pick up the divers left behind.

This is how things should be run, and the way I've done it here. Around Britain it is much easier, as the captain simply radios for a helicopter to collect the victim and the boat stays on station. Not an option we have here.

 

[peterbj7]

I don't do deco dives off boats which have emergency recall proceedures. Deco diving is done off boats that have proceedures in place to eliminate the recall in the first place - in this case that would have been a chase boat.

Quite unrealistic. There are many reasons why a recall signal might be sent, one of which happened to me deep diving off Miami. A sudden severe squall came in, with localised extremely violent weather, and the captain decided he HAD to move his boat or risk losing it. EVERY boat must have recall procedures.

 

[vladimir]

If I were in the water as one of several technical teams, and I heard an emergency recall, I would assume that someone was in truly serious condition, and I would take a long and hard look at how much risk I would assume to reboard the boat -- and where I was, and whether I could reasonably make it to shore if the boat abandoned ME. (In Puget Sound and the San Juans, that's often a possibility.)

And whether you were the team holding up the boat. If team B is going to finish their deco there's not much point in team A cutting theirs short to sit on the boat and wait.

 

[DaleC]

I recently had a somewhat similar situation.

I was at the end of a wreck dive and returning to the bow mooring line when I turned to look around (panorama like) and became momentarily disoriented. I had a few moments of not knowing which way was which and began calculating how much gas I would lose if I accidentally retraced my steps and swam to the stern again. Oddly enough, I had just finished Bernies "The Last Dive" and recalled how he got bent by swimming in circles till he had to do a bluewater accent. The "flashback" caused me to relax and put such foolishness out of my head. I regained my bearings so I wouldn't have to do such an accent myself and swam to the bowline.

Back on the line with an 11 minute obligation I heard the boat start up and drive away. I didn't worry though as I knew that it was probably picking up two other divers who were not hanging where I thought they should be and I had no desire to blow off my deco. I surfaced 11 minutes later, saw the boat, signalled that I was ok and they came to pick me up.

The story had great potential as a nail biter but it really turned out to be quite boring... which was fine with me!