Advanced Rescue Techniques for Technical Divers

The main diving safety technique required, was to rescue an unconscious breathing diver from the bottom. The other criteria, such as rescuing a non-breathing diver, would be more of a body recovery, so we’ll use the unconscious breathing diver scenario, since there could be more possibilities to address with this situation. Other scenarios to consider may involve the egress of the victim in difficult surface conditions, but a fair amount of common sense can dictate the best course of action based on what we’ve learned already from manuals. In-water diver safety and rescues have been my focussed goal for many years as an educator, experimenting with multiple concepts, not just for single cylinder divers, but also for twin cylinder Backmount or Sidemount divers, multiple stage/deco cylinder or rebreather divers. I would prefer to call it advanced rescue diving techniques, to be an addendum, rather than to replace existing skillsets. Let’s assume we have a victim lying on the sea bed, or a wreck or a cave, we wouldn’t want to create another diving incident, by having two casualties, so please make sure you receive the right rescue training using correct diving techniques. One of the most important skills required for this, is to be able to hover. This is the balance of neutral buoyancy, without kicking or sculling to maintain position with very little effort. This is one of the fundamental diving techniques associated with any kind of scuba diving. Without this, a diver’s brain is less able to deal with anything extra than complex motor skills, determined to keep the body in position within the water column.

As with any rescue situation, it is paramount to asses the situation, rather than jumping straight in. What does that involve? Well, on open circuit it’s easy to tell if the victim is breathing or not, because there would be bubbles present escaping from the victim’s regulator heading to the surface. On CCR you have to know what to look for, that would be a rhythmic expanding and contracting movement of the counterlung indicating a tidal volume, which may be quite small when the victim is unconscious. Also it’s worth noting that if the victim is not in e-CCR mode or using a constant flow unit, the victim is actually metabolising the oxygen in the loop, which may lead to hypoxia and asphyxiation if left for too long. So it’s vital to know how to add oxygen to the loop in any case.

In an ideal world, buddy checks between each member of team should be done to be more aware of what type of unit they are diving and discuss and/or confirm safety protocols, whilst they go about their business before the dive. We all know too well, that the complacency is to our own detriment.

It must be said that ‘gag straps’ here in a rescue scenario, are a very advantageous piece of diving safety equipment. Yes, they may look a bit odd, but your family would be more happy if you gave yourself every chance to come home safely after every dive. There are always discussions for and against gag straps, but as with every single piece of equipment in diving, there is a gradient percentage of pros and the same to oppose. When the pros outweigh the cons, then it’s an overall plus! We can all sometimes take for granted our abilities as competent technical divers, but in the end we can’t breathe water, yet.

Going back to the observations, it’s about learning as much as possible quickly, before engaging in any rescue attempt. Establishing the victim is unconscious but breathing, light signalling in front of the victim, waving a hand across the mask, gentle/firm squeezes to the arm or hand, being careful not to jolt the divers position. It’s clear then they’re unconscious. Now equipment checks… cylinder valves open, contents gauges check and handset/s check for PO2. Now where is that O2 MAV… ? One of the many clever ideas made by Divesoft, was to put the MAVs right next to the mouth, it’s such an accessible place not just for the diver but also for the potential rescuer.

So let’s discuss the rescuer… the rescue attempt could be done in either warm wetsuit, or cold drysuit environments. Clearly fixed buoyancy can lend itself here to the victim, simply because a diver could be in trim as a result of that perfect physiology and body fat index with a neoprene covering and nicely trimmed out unit. Otherwise, air space in the drysuit, could be more tricky to deal with alongside the art of negotiating how much air to add/vent from the wing, as well as the counterlung during ascent. So here is where the rescuer takes over the entire control of the buoyancy of the combined package of the victim and rescuer. The rescuer knows exactly where their own buoyancy inflators are, whilst very used to using them and completely accessible to them.
There were generically idillic reasons for giving the buoyancy to the victim, basically in case the rescuer lost grip of the victim, the victim would ascend to the surface. In this case, the possibility the victim may not have sufficient gas for buoyancy to get them off the deck, so the wing is kept empty, since they’re ‘attached’ anyway. In this technique the victim could be ‘attached’ to the rescuer via a large double-ender, connected from the rescuer’s front crotch D-ring, attaching to the victim’s rear crotch D-ring or rear metal frame of the unit. Both rescuer above and victim underneath are almost sandwiched together facing the same direction, with plenty of room for the rescuer to navigate their hand/arm between them to access the rescuer’s inflators.

Most importantly, the rescuer has one hand available to hold the loop firmly in place in the victims mouth, which can be interchanged between left or right hand. Whilst the other hand can be placed on the victims shoulder to steady the positional trim and control both pitch and roll, which in turn vents air from the victim’s drysuit and helps their feet up as and when needed. All this while the rescuer keeps in their usual comfortable trim. It would be like picking up any weight while attaching it to your harness D-ring, essentially turning your harness into an effective piece of rescue scuba gear. Whilst ascending in trim, venting off excess gas from the rescuer’s drysuit and/or wing, while doing the same for the victim’s drysuit. The expanding gas from the victim’s loop can be vented in a few ways, either letting it vent from the mouth or manually pulling the dump valve if it’s accessible. The PO2 must monitored and maintained, easily done thanks to Divesoft’s MAV positions. Control is the key element here, buoyancy and PO2 control. If the unit’s on auto then life is somewhat easier. If it’s only manual, then you have your work cut out. With the help of the ‘third hand’ of the double-ender, significantly makes a rescue easier, whilst maintaining a constant ambidextrous contact of the victim’s loop in their mouth, with the other hand to navigate between rescue diver’s inflation/vents and victim’s counterlung and oxygen MAV. As mentioned earlier, practice doesn’t make perfect, only permanence.

Garry Dallas
https://simplysidemount.com