Haunting excerpt from "The Last Dive"

[TwoBitTxn]

It's all about risk assessment. Not not taking risks. You see the assessment that Berman goes through to make the decision not to make the rescue. Choudhury does a good job of showing the thought process and how Berman came to the decision not to make the rescue.

You THINK before you act. STOP THINK (think some more) ACT. Sometimes, the rescuer who charges blindly into the issue comes out clean with the victim and looks the hero. All too often though, he is memorialized as someone who selflessly gave his life attempting to save someone else's.

I am a former EMT and volunteer fire fighter.

 

[nimoh]

I recently did a surface ice rescue class, and an interesting statistic was presented. With respect to thin ice incidents (i.e. people going through the ice accidentally), more fatalities were rescuers than victims.

Not sure I got my point across, I found that to be an awkward sentence to write since those rescuers became victims

 

[DeepSeaDan]

This is an excerpt from "The Last Dive: A Father and Sons Fatal Descent into the Ocean's Depths" :

"On another dive inside the Doria, Berman was diving alone when he saw massive clouds of silt billowing from a hole leading into a notoriously obstructed area. Berman could hear a diver screaming through the silt, and he heard banging on the walls. He had to make a choice about whether to plunge into the silt to try to save the diver. As in the dive where Chrissy Rouse had saved the diver who was low on air and confused at 170 feet outside of the shipwreck, Berman was not personally acquainted with the other diver. But he knew from the banging and screaming that the other man was already in the throes of panic. Trying to save the diver was simply too risky, he realized. Had Berman gone inside, blinded by the silt, he was sure to be entangled in the flailing arms and gear of a diver too panicked to let himself be rescued, and there would most likely have been two fatalities instead of just one. Steve’s friends and loved ones console him as best they can; he made a wise and inevitable choice, they tell him. The man could not be helped. Berman is still haunted by the man’s screams."

I am curious what others think of this choice. Would you have tried to save the diver?

If I were in a similar situation, I would have considered taking action. As has been mentioned previously, a proper scene/safety/situation sizeup would precede any attempt to assist. 1st, do I have dive time / gas supply available to me to alter my personal dive plan & possibly provide gas to another diver & complete a safe ascent? Though I'm exploring with a reel line, what is the distance to my egress point? How difficult will my egress be? If these factors allow for an attempt, then I must consider the environment for the rescue. Can I approach the area safely, or is the "billowing silt cloud" quickly overwhelming the area? If I deem the environment to be an acceptable risk, I would then approach the area ( with a plan of safe retreat in place in my mind ), always remaining out of the silt cloud, and create as loud a noise as I could generate ( hopefully, steel-on-steel banging ). Initially I would bang 6 times, then wait & see if the diver in trouble stops their screaming & thrashing to listen - if they stop, I would begin a continuous banging noise in an attempt for them to extract themselves from the murk by following the noise. If they did not respond, I would would continue my process of 6 bangs/wait/listen until the diver reacted, or my dive time, changing conditions etc. forced me to retreat.

I believe this course of action would minimize my personal risk to an acceptable level, while giving the paniced diver a chance. I base this scenario response on an intimate knowledge of my own personal capabilities & limitations, garnered over 40 years of diving, 20 years of professional firefighting & rescue work, and 15 years of teaching water rescue & dive rescue.

Regards,
DSD