Practical Rescue Management

Double Island, 29 February 2004

We met in Tai Mei Tuk in a humid and hazy morning. A busy boat of 20 people marshalled by Tam headed to Double Island at 9am. Commander Andrew Waller and his Dive Leader trainee team Meryl, Rita, Raymond, Tai and myself all geared up for our full-day Rescue Management practical exercise.

Act I - Scene 1: "Oh, no! Blood all over the place!" someone was found unconsciously lying on the front deck. “Let him die!" (guess who said this?). Without doubt our DL trainee team knew some work needed to be done. Rescue Manager (RM) Rita took immediate action to stop the casualty bleeding, applied O2 and to ensure the casualty was kept in a stable condition before the arrival of the ambulance.

Scene 2: A few minutes later another diver shot up to the surface, unconscious. Tai & Meryl rescued Raymond and managed to apply O2 on the boat.

(Photos courtesy of River Ko)

Scene 3: "Hey, it's an emergency!" RM Raymond took a small boat and some helpers towards the two divers who were shouting for help. "Oh, blood everywhere" - severe bleeding from Meryl's left calf, it's horrible! A buddy-line in this case was effectively transformed into life-saving equipment - to help stop bleeding from the wound. The casualty was carefully loaded onto the speedboat and then delivered to Hong's junk, where O2 was applied and she was put in a stable condition.

Back to Hong's boat, we found a huge buffet table had been nicely decorated by Kelly, Eppie, Meryl and Caroline with drumsticks, brownies, cheese, salad, etc., so yummy. Neil discovered a mini-bar next to the sink area where he found a full bottle of vodka and some unknown stuff.

"L.S., are you still eating?" Kelly asked. I must defend him because he was going through an intensive course of belly-muscle training. This training was undoubtedly successful because I later witnessed him unzip his wetsuit by using the specially trained muscles ... amazing!

Scene 4: Here we came to a lovely sunny beach with colourful pebbles lying on a sparkling calm sea. Two divers were ready to go into the water but unfortunately, someone was calling for help. RM, "Meryl, could you please get in the water, help the diver there to apply AV and tow him back to the beach?" [Note: If I had read Andrew's note before the practical training, it would have been: "Meryl, jump into the water and assist the diver applying AV and tow him back to the beach NOW!"]. One crucial step was overlooked at this point: Meryl needed to de-kit herself before she jumped into the water. To our great relief it was only a drill, or else someone would probably be crying on the beach, panicking next to two drowned bodies.

Scene 5: "My buddy is missing, she got caught in a fish net down there!" Rita shouted for help. RM Tai asked Rita to drop her weight belt tied on to a DSMB, in order to mark the site where she last saw her buddy. Tai took a speed boat together with Raymond, Meryl and Andrew to pick-up Rita and launch a search for the missing diver. The thirty-minute search was, unfortunately, not successful as we forgot to take the current into our considerations.

All the practical scenarios that had been prepared for the day were completed smoothly and we headed back to Tai Mei Tuk before sunset. After half-an-hour's boat ride Brian told us there was one diver missing from the boat. What should we do? "Stop the boat!" I shouted. Brian's cheeky smile showed us it was another test of our response and judgement.

The debrief was a very useful session. It allowed us to recap everything we had learned, suggested how to tackle the situations, to prioritize and to delegate our tasks under different circumstances with the available resources, and showed us what we had done wrong and to correct our mistakes.

Spot lights and cameras were everywhere - The Oscar winner of the Best Director this year goes to - Andrew Waller. His determination and commitment overcame his cold and helped him single-handedly complete the rescue management practical exercise for all of us. Thanks Andrew.

The water conditions were lovely - 19 degrees C. and crystal clear (c.6m viz.). Lots of jelly fish were swimming around, a Barred filefish (Cantherhines dumerilii) and a brave Yellow prawn-goby (Cryptocentrus cinctus) were all that I could remember seeing underwater during the day.

~Carmen Chung~