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While doing some diving with my son today at the Bainbridge Sportsman Club, a quarry located 100 miles west of Philadelphia, we responded to a call for help from the safety boat regarding a diver lost in 120 FFW. When we arrived at the boat we were informed that a diver was lost in 120 FFW, the deepest point in the quarry and two divers were down searching for him. They asked for two relief divers if the first two didn't find him. I volunteered and asked to borrow hood and gloves from another diver since I wasn't any wearing (my son and I were diving shallow where the water was warm) and the temperature at 120 in the quarry is approximately 40 degrees (F). At this point the diver had been separated from his buddy for in excess of 5 minutes. The diver's buddy, advised that he had looked over at his buddy, Russ (LNU) at 120 ffw and "his eyes were as big as softballs and he was not breathing." The buddy said he looked for a weight belt to drop but the Russ was wearing twin 95's with a drysuit and didn't have a weight belt (Russ was wearing a canister light which could have been dropped). When asked if he tried to inflate Russ's bc or his drysuit, he responded that "Russ had gear all over himself covering things up and I could't find the inflators." At this point the two rescue divers were seen ascending with the lost diver in tow, minus his gear. He broke the surface face down and another diver and I turned him over. He was not breathing and his face was cyanotic. His masked was removed as a prelude to in-water mouth-to-mouth. At this point he coughed and spit up blood and began breathing on his own. My son and another diver towed him to the boat where he was placed in a body basket and lifted from the water. The boat operator had already radioed for the EMTs and the boat transported him to shore where the rescue units were waiting. The two rescue divers advised that he was found motionless without his gear in 95 ffw. Apparently he had ditched his gear to become buoyant in an effort to get off the bottom. The diver's gear had not yet been retrieved when we left so I don't know either the configuration, PSI still remaining or what equipment was or wasn't working. The diver was said to be Technical Nitrox certified and working on Tri-mix rating. Don't know how many dives he has made or how long he has been diving. It would appear that due to the depth on air compounded by the temperature, the diver was heavily affected by narcosis. It would appear that the divers buddy was also affected by narcosis owing to the fact that his response in the emergency was substandard; unable to inflate his buddy's bc or drysuit, didn't think to grab hold of his buddy's gear and infate his own bc and tow the impaired diver to the surface, and leaving his buddy in an impaired state at 120 ffw. HATS OFF TO THE TWO RESCUE DIVERS WHO FOUND HIM AND BROUGHT HIM UP. RUSS OWES YOU BIG TIME!!!!!!!!!! Great job by the Bainbridge Sportsman's Club safety boat operators. You have a great operation. I'll be back. _____________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com Or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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