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I
never earned my dive instructor certification because
I’ve only ever wanted to teach photography, not scuba.
I am, however, a Professional Association of Diving
Instructors (PADI) limited field specialty instructor.
To be that, I needed to be a divemaster, which meant I had
get my rescue certification. Rescue was a class I very much
wanted to do anyway, even though I had taken it unofficially
many, many years ago and have actually rescued several
divers in my 45 years of diving.
The Event
I had a student who wanted to take an underwater photo class
with me on my private photo boat, and she brought her son
along. The son was a certified diver, but I knew that neither I
nor his mother would be able to pay much attention to him
while we were engaged in the photography class. So I assigned
a dive instructor from my staff to be his buddy.
Toward the end of our dive I looked down and saw the
son was deeper than we were. Since we were close to our
time limit, I became concerned about the possibility he and
the instructor were too deep and had been down too long.
I got the instructor’s attention and vehemently indicated
that he should get the son back to the line for ascent.
I turned to my student and started toward the mooring
line. I looked back just in time to watch her son do a rapid,
uncontrolled ascent to the surface — he had forgotten to
control his BC. I could not reach him, and the instructor
wasn’t able to get close enough to grab his fin. I saw the
son slow his ascent, and I motioned for him to come down
to us immediately. I wrote on my slate to the mother that
we were going to have a problem. I told her to stay on the
line with her son until I signaled for them to come up. The
son joined us and signaled that he was OK, but I wanted to
be ready.
I went up to the boat and set up my DAN® oxygen unit,
but I had never used it before. I always have an instructor
on board when I have students on my boat, and I have
complacently depended on them to know how to use it. I
was not at all happy with myself, and I lamented putting off
taking an oxygen-provider class. Fortunately, the unit was
already set up and just waiting to be turned on.
I brought up the instructor and then the mother and
the son, and I had the instructor put the son on oxygen. It
seemed simple enough, but I could not personally check that
it was being done properly. I was lucky the son was able to
breathe OK and had no symptoms, and I was lucky I was
with another person who knew how to deliver the oxygen.
As long as the young man was comfortable, we were OK.
We cancelled the second dive and headed for the dock. The
diver was feeling all right and got up momentarily to move,
so he went off oxygen briefly. That’s when the symptoms
started. He went back on oxygen until an ambulance could
meet us at the dock. He was taken to the hospital, and after
two Table 6 chamber treatments, he was fine.
Now I Know
Better
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59
B y C a t h y C h u r c h
Don’t be complacent or rely too heavily on other divers’ skills. Learn to
administer oxygen and basic first aid.
STEPHEN FRINK
