Page 52 - AlertDiver_Spring2013

I started diving in 1986, became a scuba instructor in
1999 and am now a proud DAN Instructor Trainer.
I’m also the operations manager at Scuba Cancun
Dive Center, which has allowed me to make a career
out of something I love and am passionate about. Scuba
Cancun was founded 33 years ago, making it the oldest
dive center (and DAN Training Center) in Cancun and
the Riviera Maya.
Recently, an opportunity presented itself when my
friends Bill Hillermeier, a DAN Instructor Trainer (and
my guru), and Tom Hurtado, general manager at Scuba
Cancun Dive Center, approached me with a plan to
expand our offering of DAN Education courses.
Sometimes it’s not easy to have buddies like these
two — overachievers who are always up to something.
Their latest idea was to offer DAN’s Diving Emergency
Management Provider (DEMP) course to the Scuba
Cancun Dive Center staff, but the idea quickly
snowballed, ultimately becoming something much
bigger: Training Beyond Borders.
The Training Beyond Borders Diving Emergency
Symposium is the first program of its kind, offering
DAN courses to firefighters, Red Cross personnel, civil
protection emergency responders and National Marine
Park rangers in the Yucatán — all with full scholarships.
To achieve this extremely ambitious endeavor, a dream-
team faculty was assembled. Dan and Betty Orr from DAN
headquarters along with Brian Wake, director of DAN
Education, worked side by side with DAN Examiners,
Instructors and Trainers. DAN World representative
Laura Johnson was instrumental in getting the local dive
community involved. The event was a huge success; more
than 200 DAN certifications were issued, and participants
representing seven countries attended. With Provider-,
Instructor- and Trainer-level certifications given for every
DAN Education course offered, the Cancun/Riviera Maya
region now has educators to disseminate DAN’s first aid
and dive-safety courses throughout the region.
While we recognized the importance of our recent
training, we never thought a true emergency would
require our knowledge so soon. Only three short weeks
after the event ended, our skills were tested.
A Bad Fall
A boat captain who rents space at a neighboring pier
came into the dive shop one afternoon and advised the
staff there was an injured person next door. A mechanic
had fallen from a ladder and sustained an exposed
fracture with heavy bleeding. One of our video staff
members, Emmanuel Caballero, and National Marine
Park Ranger Joel Ramirez, whose office is across the
parking lot, jumped into action. Both these responders
were scholarship recipients and graduates of Training
Beyond Borders. This exact scenario had been discussed
and even practiced during the DAN Basic Life Support:
CPR and First Aid course.
Training Beyond Borders
50 | SPRING 2013
RESEARCH, EDUCATION & MEDICINE // S K I L L S I N A C T I O N
B y M i g u e l C a c h o a
COURTESY BETTY ORR