Rescue of DIR style Diver

[Jim Lapenta]

A properly trained diver, DIR or otherwise, would not be overweighted.

 

[lamont]

Assuming the diver is overweighted or just too heavy to swim up. Would it be better to ditch their weights and get them up OR put some air input into their rig (orally or power inflate).
Does the answer change at all if you're say above 50ft?

You should have been taught in your rescue course how to bring up an unconscious diver from depth which involves using their wing to inflate them and basically ride them to the surface.

Answer doesn't change at all based on depth.

 

[g1138]

You should have been taught in your rescue course how to bring up an unconscious diver from depth which involves using their wing to inflate them and basically ride them to the surface.

Answer doesn't change at all based on depth.

I was never taught this method. But I think I could manage it. Thanks lamont.

 

[Gilldiver]

There are Diving Accidents and Accidents that happen while Diving, either type can require rescue.

All of these DIR replies assume that rescue will only have to be done after an accident under the water. But, none of them is thinking of the accidents that occur at the water’s surface.

I have seen problems underwater, I have been around at the body recoveries, I have gone to the wakes and funerals. But I have also been at many, many, more events to require a diver to be assisted or rescued at the water surface. For me, these have all be involved with entry, movement around a boat, or on exit up the ladder. The two events I use most are:

1) A diver was moving along the boat towards the bow and was too close to the boat as it rolled. The hard chine of the hull caught the divers right shoulder on the down roll and dislocated it. This diver had to be assisted out of his gear by cutting it off of him. He then needed 4 divers to get him up back up onto the deck.
2) The second involved a diver who was going up the ladder in rough seas and lost his balance, got launched off the ladder and landed on another divers twin tanks, taking a valve and 1st stage right in the back of the head. This diver was completely out and was in danger of drowning. Again, he was cut out and hauled up.
I have also seen divers hurt by the ladder, taking a T ladder in the crotch, getting hammered by the swim plate form, having a diver jump off the boat on top of them. Then there are also the slips and falls that occur to anyone on a boat, never mind the crushed fingers etc. at docking.

TS&M, I remember that a few years ago you had an accident at the waters shore where you slipped near the water. What would have occurred if you had been in all of 2 or 3 feet of water with a set of doubles on and landed face down in the water without your reg, or had been knocked out or just stunned, and was your accident a diving accident or an accident that occurred while diving?

Saying that rescue only happens to a dead diver is just not the real world.

 

[lamont]

Saying that rescue only happens to a dead diver is just not the real world.

I was addressing an unconscious diver rescued at depth, which is the situation the OP was concerned about, not your situations, which clearly are more common actual rescues that occur.

 

[Sat Diver]

I was never taught this method. But I think I could manage it. Thanks lamont.

Remember to keep his airway open as you 'ride him up' to the surface. In case he wasn't dead before, he will be if you dont.

 

[Crush]

- don't ditch weights at depth

do a controlled ascent with all the divers gear. a workable procedure of how to go about doing this takes more than a short internet post, but ditching their weights at depth is definitely going to be unworkable.

What lamont said, however:

• About 70% of divers have never gone beyond basic-OW training;
• Most divers are PADI-trained divers;
• therefore, most divers were never trained to ascertain consciousness, do a controlled ascent with an unconscious diver, etc..

When checking out my insta-buddy I try to gauge if they have been taught to rescue an unconscious/unresponsive diver in the manner described by lamont without being obvious. If it appears that they were not I point out that I have no quick-release straps that would help them or me out. I tell them that, if in any doubt, they are to begin to cut through both shoulder straps and the waist belt. My shears, located there, would be especially useful. If I stop them, they should discontinue their attempts to cut me free.

FWIW, I would rather be bent and embolized on the surface then drowned and lost (I dive poor vis water) at depth.

 

[g1138]

Remember to keep his airway open as you 'ride him up' to the surface. In case he wasn't dead before, he will be if you dont.

Good point, something I never thought about. Would you just do a visual check to see if their head was tilted back on ascent?

 

[TSandM]

TS&M, I remember that a few years ago you had an accident at the waters shore where you slipped near the water. What would have occurred if you had been in all of 2 or 3 feet of water with a set of doubles on and landed face down in the water without your reg, or had been knocked out or just stunned, and was your accident a diving accident or an accident that occurred while diving?

I have fallen in very shallow water without a reg in my mouth, but I wasn't knocked out. Unless you hit your head, hard, on a rock on the way down, the water is unlikely to render you unconscious. If you ARE unconscious in shallow water, your weight belt is essentially irrelevant unless you are massively overweighted, because the answer is for rescuers to turn you on your back and inflate your wing, and get your airway out of the water. If you need CPR, you get cut out of the harness.

In reality, if you think long and hard about weights and ditching weights, you'll come up with the conclusion, I think, that ditching weight is something you do at the surface. You do it when you have a panicked or incapacitated diver, who is incapable of maintaining his own positive buoyancy or vertical position. You can do this quickly with a harness setup, if it is needed. In the majority of cases, you will be doing this with a relatively inexperienced diver who has lost his composure; occasionally, you will be doing it with an experienced diver who has made no major errors, but has somehow been rendered helpless, as the two stories recounted above illustrate.

It IS important to be able to remove weights, and it is important to be able to remove gear. Anyone diving a harness without a cutting device is not thinking things through.

 

[Crush]

I have fallen in very shallow water without a reg in my mouth, but I wasn't knocked out.

My comment, not criticism,

I have read many times on SB Jim Lapenta (and others) post that you should always keep your regulator in your mouth until back on the boat or otherwise well out of the water - very good advice.

DIR (and other) folks like to keep the octo bungee'd around the diver's neck (where it is very easy to retrieve) - this is fantastic advice.