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Greetings Everyone, I've been on this list for a year or so, and really haven't had much of an opportunity to contribute anything. Mostly because, as a new diver, I really don't know much. I'm currently working on my PADI Divemaster certification, which I should finish this week. Well... Enough of this; On to the reason why I am writing the list. I was involved (intimately) in a rescue off of Catalina Island last weekend. I'm hoping that if I can provide enough detail; this group can provide some clues as to what might have caused this incident. Here's what happened: I'm assisting an instructor in a PADI open water certification dive number one. We're boat diving off the coast of Catalina Island. There are four divers in the class and one of them, the diver who had the problem was 62 years old. The Instructor enters the water first, followed by the four students, and then myself. As the students enter the water, they seem to display the normal nerviousness I would expect from new divers who are on their first ocean dive and first boat dive. The water temperature was about 64 degrees, and all students were in 7 mil suits (no hoods). There was very little current, and no swells to speak of. It's a sunny day, and the dive took place at about noon. After a surface swim of about 100 yards, we decend as a group. The decent was normal, and the depth was 34 feet. The diver in question settled onto his knees and sat with his arms crossed, waiting for the instructor to test his mask skills. After a few minutes, the instructor comes over to the diver and starts the mask skills with him. The diver acts as if he does not seem to quite understand what is expected, and is generally acting a little confused. The instructor directs me to sit with this diver while she finishes the skills on the last diver in the group. As I position myself face to face with the diver, I notice that he is breathing very quickly (almost constant flow from the regulator) and shallow. He's opening and closing his eyes (mostly closed)). I reach in and grab his left forearm with my right (a buddy breathing type grip) and he holds on to me. We sit there for a couple of minutes, and then the instructor directs us to ascend. I keep my grip on him and we start going up. The ascent took 42 seconds (according to the computer profile of the dive) and I had to dump air from the diver's BC because he wasn't responding to my direction to dump the air from his BC. We were face to face on the entire ascent, and his breathing was the same rapid shallow breathing on the way up. Once on the surface, the diver immediately threw up. After he finished throwing up, I told him to relax and rest a few minutes and then we'd go back to the boat. As he lay on his back, he started drifting with the current. I told him to swim over to me, and he did not respond. I then told him that I would tow him in. I swam over to him, and grabbed his first stage and started towing him in. He threw up again, and then settled back into the BC. I towed him like this for about a minute, and then noticed that he was awfully quiet. I asked him if he was doing okay, and there was no response. I stopped towing him and went to his side and looked at him. His face and lips were blue. His eyes were open, but clearly not seeing anything. After tearing off his mask (which was around his neck) I checked for breathing. None. I gave him two quick packing breaths, and then began rescue breathing (one breath every five seconds). After yelling to the boat that he was not breathing, I continued towing and rescue breathing. It took about two minutes to get him to the dive platform. Two nurses (divers also) happened to be on board and they checked for a pulse... There was none. They began CPR. After approximately one minute, the diver began breathing on his own. The Coast Guard arrived and took the diver to the Catalina Decompression Chamber area. By the time we got to the chamber, the diver was completely lucid and responsive. After a level 6 decompression, the diver was taken to USC medical center. They could find no embolism, nor any other likely cause of the cardio pulminary arrest. The diver was on low blood pressure medication which he took the morning of the incident. Also... They did find some signs of fluid in the lungs; but were unsure of the cause (heart failure or inhalation of seawater). So... My question to the group is; What could possibly cause cardio-pulminary arrest in a diver of somewhat advanced age, at these moderate depths? Thanks in advance for your inputs. Joe West ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- There are no absolutes in this world. Truth is gray, and it is our job to seek out the truths we wish to follow, remembering never to judge the truths of others. Keep in mind that the difference between right and wrong can be infinitely small if you examine the problem from enough perspectives... and the ability to consider other perspectives is a sign of an advanced soul. Joe West ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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