But there's another side to Rescue class that doesn't sometimes get emphasized enough ... and that's how to prevent the need for rescue in the first place.
Bullseye.
I'm in a unique position at the shop where I have been giving lessons because I can build scenarios based upon real-world accidents. "out of the box" scenarios are cute but what I want to get across to students are three things:
1) the vast majority of accidents don't involve "lost divers" or searching around on the bottom. In one of my standard scenarios I have a diver a little further up on the jetty have a "heart-attack" before he's even in the water. He falls, rolls over and lands in the water. Based on a real world event.
Other scenarios I've used are
- a victim who drops a tank on their foot breaking it.
- a dislocated shoulder caused by someone with a preexisting condition picking up gear that was too heavy
- a DCS caused by someone who screwed up launching a dsmb and got dragged to the surface by the damned thing
- an arguing buddy pair under water who start pushing and shoving each other because they're angry at each other. It escalates to the point that one of the buddies mask is full of water and they make a panic ascent
- a diver who tried to carry something heavy to the surface and is unable to establish positive buoyancy and sinks in shallow water, drowning
- a diver who was diving with overloaded integrated weight pockets and loses a pocket and makes an inverted uncontrolled ascent in a drysuit, holds their breath and has a lung barotrauma.
- etc etc. there are several others
sadly all of the above are based on real world accidents.
2) when the coin should fall that a serious accident is actually happening. From personal experience I know that two things happen at accident sites (1) people call the EMS too late because they don't believe it's real and (2) they call with their cell phones and have no idea a ALL where they are.
In this case I make a scenario that develops in such a way that students are left wondering if it's real or not. I also give them a "911" number, which is my own cellphone number and when they call teh fate of the victim depends entirely on whether or not they are able to clearly explain *where they are*.
3) control is coordination.
From personal experience I know that one thing above all others, will keep the accident site under control when everyone (with the best of intentions) is trying to mobilize support...... which is that rescuers need to "take control". The last thing you need is 3 separate rescues going on at the same time.... so *someone* needs to take control. What I tell me students is that they don't need to be the one to control everything but if a natural "leader" steps up they should support them.
Why do I do this? I've actually witnessed an accident where an instructor from another agency tried starting a parallel rescue and a bystander started screaming at my own OW students who were not even certified, to "WAKE THE F*K UP AND GO SEARCH FOR THE VICTIM". I managed to intercept him and asked him, "did you ask these divers what their certification level is"? He didn't. I told him on no uncertain terms that he needed to back down. That I was in control and if he would either follow my lead or I would have the police remove him from the scene. The point being, that stuff like this happens in the real world, and that part of the rescue course should be dedicated to making sure that other people's "best efforts" don't cause delays or major mistakes. As an aside, as soon as that guy knew that there was someone in charge he became an asset and did a lot to help.
It's also highly important to know when to relinquish control to the professionals. At some point the paramedics or other EMS professionals are going to want to take control. Even if you've been been in control from the start then you need clearly state, "You are in control". It's important to the EMS personnel as well to understand that you're ready to help them but that it's their call. I've assisted at multiple accidents in the past (not all diving related). In some cases the EMS personnel will follow instructions if it's clear that the situation is under control and some cases they will forcefully take over control. What ever happens, it's really important that everyone keeps focused on saving the victim and not playing little s****ass power games. If the EMS wants to take over the FFS let them!
R..
