Mailing List Archive Mailing List Archive
> My area of concern would be that divers trained in warm water situations > might not realise how common reg freezing is here in the frozen wastes of > the UK. How often is this matter considered when doing environmental > orientation dives in the UK? > As experienced divers we should pay more attention to divers from a warm > water background, as well as young and new divers. Perhaps then some good > will come of this unfortunate incident. One cannot be too vigilant. the > last fatality I attended was on a PADI Rescue course - a course for > experienced divers already well qualified. Let's be careful out there. With regards to Chris's comments and the Fatality at Stoney Cove this weekend, you may find this interesting, we were luck and both came out of it with out and problems I wrote the following just after the incident for my branch Diving officer ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ After a number of years diving I had given up for every, well March 1994 I decided to get back into diving, I attended my local BSAC club and found out the my Scotish SAC qualifications could to converted to BSAC if I carried out some lectures and practical test. So as a new diver I was eager to dive as often as possible so I booked my self on a Shop Dive ( they were no clubs until March 1995) I arrived at the shop and the owner carefully checked all our qualifications then paired me with a buddy of similar qualified, I was paired with Jeff, we all headed down the boat on a lovely day, sun shinning etc.. I started to talk to Jeff my buddy for the day, Jeff had about 40 dive under his belt and had been diving about every 2 weeks through the summer and had just come back for some warm weather diving Jeff and I set out our plan I would lead , we would go down the shot line to 30m, with check point at 10m and 20m I led off , checking Jeff as OK at 10, and 20, at 20m the visibility drooped form 7m to 3m and it became very dark, at the bottom I stopped put on my torch and turned to Jeff As I turned to face Jeff I found him facing me with bubbles flooding out of his mask, he was having some sort of problem, this first thing Jeff did was to signal UP, I through Jeff was just having problems clearing his mask, I singled Wait, to try and calm him down, I did not want to spoil my day out due to Jeff having a mask problem, Jeff made a couple of attempts to clear his mask, he them accidentally knocked my regulator out, I through he had panicked and I move back 3 m (it was in fact an accident), I signed for up and Jeff shot off ahead of me, out of sight, I followed up the shot line at a Normial speed As I moved from 30 to 25 to 23 Meters I started to make out the shape of a Diver......... no it was Jeff hanging onto the shot line like a gymnast abbot to perform, I stopped and waited for Jeff to move, I was not going to go to close in case Jeff was having some sort of panic attack After 15 second when Jeff had not moved at all I started to approach him slowly, Jeff still did not moved, I looked at him, he had no regulator in , his mask was full of water and he was not moving, in a split second I through this is not happening to me, what do I do now, just leave him ! Then reason took over OK try and put the regulator back in, I did, Jeff did not move, did not breath By this time at lest 30 second gone with Jeff not receiving any air, the clock had started towards problems, OK it take 5 minutes to drawn I am going to have to do a emergency controlled lift (that's odd itis one of the two test I had to do to re-qualify as a BSAC diver) I started to put air into Jeff's suit, 3,5,7 second nothing happening, no this is not happening to me, Jeff must be carrying to much weight , OK Lift him on his STAB as I has on his right hand side holding Jeff, finning like made just to stay still and not float down I opened his reserve bottle on the STAB just enough to start make him buoyant watching me speed we started off to the surface My concern now is how to you empty an unconscious divers lungs of air to prevent a burst lung (this was not covered in the training manual) so I started to thump Jeff's chest to try and expel air from his lungs Every thing was going to clock work, just like a practise session, until with a another punch to Jeff's chest I knock my own regulator out, in it went then I got water with me first breath and started to cough Bang we are on the surface, assent time less than 30 seconds, total dive time 9 Minutes I could see my dive boat at lest 100m away, I started to shout for help, then I turned to Jeff to give him EAR, just as I got ready for the first breath, bang another diver hit me from above, we had come up almost under the Cirrus The diver pushed me away and took charge We got Jeff onto the boat this took about 5 minutes during this time I am not sure if the other diver tried EAR when Jeff was landed he was still unconscious but breathing so we put him into the recovery position and some one gave him oxygen The water was still like a pond you could see for miles and miles, then almost as if it was choreographed the helicopter and inshore life boat arrived at the same time, off I went followed by Jeff After we got to Alversotke and they popped Jeff in the chamber the doctor gave me a check over and told me that I was fine and I could go home, how I said , I was standing in me dry suit with no money my car 80 miles away in Brighton, what if my wife can not get here to pick me up ? well there is a good hotel just up the road ( new rule of diving you should always dive with you American Express card, you never know when you may need it) During my time at Alversotke the chaps working the decompression chamber told me that they are now a privet agency left be the government to sink or swim ( should diver not carry insurance to cover this sort of incident it could not have been cheep to have 4 men work the chamber, one inside and a doctor they, Jeff was the 80th this year, his only took 5hurs they can take 40hurs ) Later on when I managed to talk to Jeff I learnt that although he had one 30 dives only 2 had been in the sea around the UK and none in low visibility, as to why I could not lift him on his suit Jeff told me that the air feed did not always work 100% and that he carried to much lead As to why Jeff blacked we will never know If their is a lesson to be learnt from this itis always dig into the history of you buddy, find out in detail the type of diving he has been doing and in the words of the HITCH HIKERS GUIDE TO THE GALAXY, DON'T PANIC !
Navigate by Author:
[Previous]
[Next]
[Author Search Index]
Navigate by Subject:
[Previous]
[Next]
[Subject Search Index]
[Send Reply] [Send Message with New Topic]
[Search Selection] [Mailing List Home] [Home]