DeepDiverBob
May 27th, 2008, 09:47 AM
I have been trying to decide if I should say anything about this or not, and I have decided to go ahead and post the story, because I think there is an important lesson to be learned here. I'll get to that in a minute.
I was working an OW class class, we had 7 students. Vis wasnt very good again, maybe 5 foot, and thats being generous. We decided to break up the students into 2 groups. Makes for a longer day for us, but safer for everyone. Our dives went off as planned, and we was able to complete OW dives 1-3 on Saturday. We was suppose to see Merle Haggard at the Casino Saturday night, however, when we checked the show times, we found out Merle was sick, and was in the hospital, no show. So I ventured back to Mermet to hangout and shoot the breeze with some of the staff there, and thats when things went south in a hurry.
I was standing by the air fill station, when we heard a loud yell coming from the deep dock area. I would like to be able to give you an exact time, but to be honest, I dont recall. I would guess between 7:30 and 8, because people was gearing up for night dives. The Mermet staff was down at the dock in a matter of seconds, to make sure everything was okay. I wasnt sure the severity of the situation at that point. A few minutes later, a loud mans voice was heard yelling for a medic, and you could tell by his tone, this was no drill. I was caught between staying out of the way, because the Mermet staff was on top of everything, and wanting to lend a helping hand in any way I could. When I got to the deep dock, I could see CPR was being delivered to a diver on the deep dock. The first report I heard was that there was a very weak pulse. While all of this was going on, everyone could notice that there was still another diver in the water, and they appeared th be having a free flow issue. Once that diver surfaced, he was immediately put on O2 to be safe. The next report I heard was that the girl that was being given CPR now had a strong pulse, and was awake and alert. An Ambulance had already been called. At this point, I was just trying to do crown control, and keep a path open for the emergency personal going back and forth. If my count was correct, it appeared 5 different people was on O2. A evac helicoptor was summoned, and tried to land in the parking lot, but it was too dusty, and the pilot aborted that landing attempt. They wound up landing it out by highway 45 (I'm not sure which side). She girl was air lifted out, and taken to St.Louis from what I was told.
There was a lot of speculation going on about what happened. The first report was that it was an AOW class, and they was doing their deep dive. That made no sense to me, since I would think nobody would do their deep dive at the end of the day, and right at dusk. Turns out that was a false report. Last thing I heard, and I can not verify if this is true either, but this makes more sense, was that it was just going to be a night dive, not deep, but things just went bad. I dont want to speculate any further than that.
Sunday, we completed training dive number 4, and we had a group of happy newly certified divers. They wanted to go on a fun dive to celebrate the occasion. They wanted to see some of the sights, so i was more than happy to show them around. We did a surface swim out to the 727, and dropped down on the tail end, and worked our way down to the nose of the plane, looking at the helicopter and jet ski on top. Then over to the box car, and the newly sunk firetruck. At that point, one of the students signaled he was at 700 psim, so we called the dive, and surfaced. Every one of the students was as gitty as a child on Christmas morning. We did a surface swim back to the dock, and completed the paperwork and log book signings, and headed back home.
However, (there is always a however), I did notice that the O2 kits was out again on Sunday. The reports I was told was that there was a case of vertigo, which caused a rather quick ascent, a sinus squeeze that cause a little panic, and another free flow, but that diver still managed a reasonable ascent, but was put on O2 just to play it safe, nothing serious came of any of these incidents, last I heard.
My hat is off to the staff of Mermet Springs, which once again proved why this is one of the best, if not the best, training facilities there is.
I was working an OW class class, we had 7 students. Vis wasnt very good again, maybe 5 foot, and thats being generous. We decided to break up the students into 2 groups. Makes for a longer day for us, but safer for everyone. Our dives went off as planned, and we was able to complete OW dives 1-3 on Saturday. We was suppose to see Merle Haggard at the Casino Saturday night, however, when we checked the show times, we found out Merle was sick, and was in the hospital, no show. So I ventured back to Mermet to hangout and shoot the breeze with some of the staff there, and thats when things went south in a hurry.
I was standing by the air fill station, when we heard a loud yell coming from the deep dock area. I would like to be able to give you an exact time, but to be honest, I dont recall. I would guess between 7:30 and 8, because people was gearing up for night dives. The Mermet staff was down at the dock in a matter of seconds, to make sure everything was okay. I wasnt sure the severity of the situation at that point. A few minutes later, a loud mans voice was heard yelling for a medic, and you could tell by his tone, this was no drill. I was caught between staying out of the way, because the Mermet staff was on top of everything, and wanting to lend a helping hand in any way I could. When I got to the deep dock, I could see CPR was being delivered to a diver on the deep dock. The first report I heard was that there was a very weak pulse. While all of this was going on, everyone could notice that there was still another diver in the water, and they appeared th be having a free flow issue. Once that diver surfaced, he was immediately put on O2 to be safe. The next report I heard was that the girl that was being given CPR now had a strong pulse, and was awake and alert. An Ambulance had already been called. At this point, I was just trying to do crown control, and keep a path open for the emergency personal going back and forth. If my count was correct, it appeared 5 different people was on O2. A evac helicoptor was summoned, and tried to land in the parking lot, but it was too dusty, and the pilot aborted that landing attempt. They wound up landing it out by highway 45 (I'm not sure which side). She girl was air lifted out, and taken to St.Louis from what I was told.
There was a lot of speculation going on about what happened. The first report was that it was an AOW class, and they was doing their deep dive. That made no sense to me, since I would think nobody would do their deep dive at the end of the day, and right at dusk. Turns out that was a false report. Last thing I heard, and I can not verify if this is true either, but this makes more sense, was that it was just going to be a night dive, not deep, but things just went bad. I dont want to speculate any further than that.
Sunday, we completed training dive number 4, and we had a group of happy newly certified divers. They wanted to go on a fun dive to celebrate the occasion. They wanted to see some of the sights, so i was more than happy to show them around. We did a surface swim out to the 727, and dropped down on the tail end, and worked our way down to the nose of the plane, looking at the helicopter and jet ski on top. Then over to the box car, and the newly sunk firetruck. At that point, one of the students signaled he was at 700 psim, so we called the dive, and surfaced. Every one of the students was as gitty as a child on Christmas morning. We did a surface swim back to the dock, and completed the paperwork and log book signings, and headed back home.
However, (there is always a however), I did notice that the O2 kits was out again on Sunday. The reports I was told was that there was a case of vertigo, which caused a rather quick ascent, a sinus squeeze that cause a little panic, and another free flow, but that diver still managed a reasonable ascent, but was put on O2 just to play it safe, nothing serious came of any of these incidents, last I heard.
My hat is off to the staff of Mermet Springs, which once again proved why this is one of the best, if not the best, training facilities there is.