The Summer Holidays Start

As the main holiday weeks start the team had several incidents over the weekend.

Saturday's patrol headed to Dancing Ledge and a report of a group coasteering in some rough conditions.  The patrol arrived and gave some safety advice to the group on the sea conditions.

Shortly after the full team were tasked to Swanage Pier to meet a dive boat who had a diver airlifted to Southampton hospital after a rapid ascent missing decompression stops.
 Both Swanage RNLI lifeboats were tasked to the vessel in support of the incident.
The team liaised with all those involved and the Police to establish what had caused the incident although several hours after the incident it was confirmed the male diver had had a lucky escape and their condition was not as bad as first thought.

Whilst the team was on the pier they dealt with a male with a fishing hook in their finger.

Sunday's patrol started in a similar way when they were tasked to Swanage Pier to meet a dive vessel.
Again a diver had missed a decompression stop and the crew and Coastguard liaised with a Dive Doctor in Poole.  Thankfully again there was no symptoms with advice given by the Doctor , the team took details and provided further advice.

The National Maritime Operations Centre then tasked the patrol to Studland after a Digital Emergency call was received indicating a vessel was in distress.

On arrival the team searched the beach area and located a boat owner who confirmed a fault with their radio which triggered the alarm.  Advice was given on drying the radio out before using it again and the patrol were released to return to the station.

Diving Pains

The team have been dealing with a young diver today after he experienced severe head pains after surfacing.

Having just ordered a round of teas at the Seagull cafe following an early morning cliff training session, the team noticed the young lad in considerable difficulty across the road by the water's edge.

The dive instructor was already calling for an ambulance so, conversing  through the National Maritime Operations Centre  (NMOC), the team liaised with the duty doctor at the decompression chamber in Poole, exchanging details of the pains and symptoms for medical advice.  

Based on the depth of the dive, it was felt that a painful squeeze related to difficulties with equalising was probably to blame rather than anything related to decompression. When the ambulance arrived, the team handed over to paramedics who, after a thorough check over took the boy, who had by now calmed down considerably, to Poole hospital as a precaution.

Before the ambulance left, the team checked the welfare of both the boy's father and the diving instructor and once satisfied, stood down and returned to the cafe for a well deserved cup of tea.

#always on call

Busy, Busy, Busy

The first Saturday of the school holidays brought a very busy day for the Coastguard volunteers, with 8 incidents recorded through the day.

The day started just around 11.00am when the team met a local dive boat from which a diver had been airlifted a short time earlier.  The diver, returning from the Everleigh wreck had planned to take a scheduled 10-metre stop on his ascent, but had lost control of his buoyancy and despite his buddy's best efforts, had continued to the surface.  He showed no symptoms of the bends, but after a call to the dive doctor, was airlifted to the compression chamber in Poole anyway.  The team liaised with the diveboat skipper and the diver's buddy to check their welfare and to collect background information leading up to the incident.

Incidents continued to occur during the day, and the next task was to clear Studland beach so that the Royal Navy EOD team from Plymouth could blow up some wartime ordnance discovered there.

World War II munitions discovered on Studland Beach

Working with Police and National Trust to clear a very busy Knoll Beach

That done, there were two separate boats in trouble that the team kept a look out for and watch over,  before setting off for the mouth of the Wareham River where there was an 80-year old boater stuck in the mud on a low tide. In the event, our colleagues from Poole lifeboat undertook this rescue and the team returned to Studland where they supported Police and Ambulance services in the immediate aftermath of a road traffic accident on the Studland Road.  First aid support was provided to the Paramedic and logistical support to the Police.

Eyes On

On returning to the station, the team were just washing the vehicle down when they heard a Mayday call from a yacht on fire off the Training Bank at Studland Beach. After liaising with the National Maritime Operations Centre, and not knowing if casualties were likely to be in the water, the team made good speed to the site ready to provide sitreps to the NMOC and to deal with any casualties and / or debris washed on to the beach.  In the event, Poole ALB extinguished the fire and the casualties were transferred by Poole ILB to the Poole pilot boat and taken ashore.  Once the fire was out the lifeboats towed the burnt out yacht to Poole and the Coastguard team set off back to base.

The yacht crew were rescued by Poole ILB before Poole ALB tackled the fire

The day was not quite done yet, and a direct call from a local family saw first aid advice and support given to an unwell relative.  The team advised the tasking of an ambulance and waited until the paramedics were on scene.

Finally, some 12 hours after the initial call out, the vehicle was returned to the station, the logs written up and the lights turned out on a busy day.

Major Search for Missing Diver off Swanage

Press release from the MCA press office. (19:39)

A further press release has just been issued.

Updated press release. (00.00)

16 Diving Death in the UK during 2012

The Coastguard have just published the diving related incidents it dealt with during 2012.

Sadly 16 people lost their lives during 2012 whilst diving, the highest figure for 11 years.

You can read the full report here, be prepared and take a minute to read the report.

Divers airlifted from dive boat in Swanage

Rescue 106 taking off yesterday from its base in Portland on route to airlift two divers off Swanage.

Diving Incidents - Ear Barotrauma.

The Swanage Coastguard Team is often called down to the Pier to respond to a diver in distress. Although this year I don’t think we’ve had one.

People always think about 'The Bends' as a diving accident but a much more common problem is an acute ear barotrauma. …sounds a bit technical?, let me try and explain.

When scuba diving, or indeed snorkelling, you need to equalise the pressure in your ears as you descend. This is relatively easily done by squeezing your nose and blowing gently until you hear a gentle pop. You continue to do this as you descend otherwise you suffer pain in your ears due to pressure build up. You have probably experienced it at the bottom of a swimming pool.

On the way back up your ears normally equalise back on their own accord, but yawning or moving your jaw can aid this (and yes you can yawn underwater!)

If a diver is unable to clear his/her ears this can lead to a pressure imbalance in the ears. This is incredibly painful - trust me - it really is not good.

Conversely, sometimes the pressure imbalance causes you to become dizzy (or start to samba), nice feeling but you risk making bad decisions or unconsciousness - and enter the 'incident pit'. 

Best way to deal with it is to descend slightly and take your time coming up.

...... nitrogen narcosis or being 'narked'! More on that tomorrow.

The Incident Pit

The Incident Pit

“An incident pit is conceptual pit with sides that become steeper over time and with each new incident until a point of no return is reached. As time moves forward, seemingly innocuous incidents push a situation further toward a bad situation and escape from the incident pit becomes more difficult. An incident pit may or may not have a point of no return.

It is a slang term used by divers, as well as engineers, medical personnel, and technology management personnel, to describe these situations and more importantly to avoid becoming ensnared.”

Ok so that’s a definition, but in diving terms allow me give an example.-

Two trained divers decide to dive a wreck, for arguments sake we’ll call it HMS Swanage. They decide they will only dive to the top of the wreck. They do their buddy and kit checks and jump in. The first diver remembers he’s left his spare diving mask on the boat, but decides “...well it’s a shallow dive and we’re in the water so let’s just get cracking.” The chap has just entered the Incident Pit and what’s more he’s unknowlingly dragged his mate in with him.

Twenty minutes into a dive and they are distracted by a large dog fish which they follow around for ten minutes; they’re so interested that they start to forget to regularly check their air gauges. Slipping deeper into the Incident Pit – but they could easily stop what they are doing. They come across a large hole in the wreck and one decides to swim deeper and go inside, the other stays outside . Well inside the Incident Pit now. In the scrabble to get in the hole the second diver accidently kicks the first diver’s mask off.

So we now have one diver in the wreck and one swimming alongside the wreck superstructure with no mask. Some good choices at this point and they might still be able to climb out of the Incident Pit

Most divers are trained for this and naturally the first diver reaches for his spare mask to remember it is on the boat.

A bit flustered he loses some buoyancy and sinks slightly deeper. He has problems reading his gauges and keeps sinking. More flustered he tries to fill his jacket with air and over inflates it. Critical Point Suddenly he is ascending quickly, and more quickly as the gas expands and he accelerates towards the surface, he hasn’t got time to check his ascent and misses his decompression stop. He comes to the surface with the bends. He’s out of the Incident Pit? No chance.

Meanwhile his mate is in the wreck kicking up silt, he turns around and finds the first diver has disappeared so goes deeper into the wreck to find him. It’s darker and there’s more silt. Before long he has no visibility, and when he checks his air he sees he is running out. Point of no return probably?

The Cox of the dive boat on the surface has a problem. He’s now got one diver on the surface with the bends (decompression sickness) and one diver missing. The emergency call goes out on Channel 16 VHF to Portland Coastguard who being the local know where they are.

.................

From the above you can see that even the most innocuous choices/ decisions / actions /events have a knock on affect which incrementally increase the risk until there is a real threat to life. Often when you get to that point there are some big decisions to be made; or is it simply too late?

Should the diver have gone back for his mask ? Not necessarily.

Should they have chased the dogfish? Maybe

Should they have stuck to the dive plan and not go in the wreck? Definitely

Should the first diver took stock of the situation, remained calm etc etc..

So many questions, choices.....The bottom line is recognizing very early on when you have fallen into the Incident Pit, the earlier you spot the easier to get out.

I suppose you’re wondering about them divers. Happy ending or sad? It’s Easter and this is not BBC 1's naff Casualty programme so let’s have a happy outcome...... In this scenario the first diver is airlifted by Coastguard Helicopter to the decompression chamber and makes a full recovery.

The second diver made a good decision before going to the wreck. Critical Intervention. He clipped his reel to the outside of the wreck so he just follows the string back to the opening and then ascends normally to the surface.

Divers - Decompression Sickness

It’s been a busy day for the recompression chamber over in Poole- also known by divers as ‘The Pot’.

This morning saw a diver airlifted by Rescue 107 from Swanage Pier, more as a precaution than anything else. Within 10 minutes the Helicopter was re-tasked to Lyme Bay to pick up a second diver who sounded a lot worse.

This afternoon and the helicopter was back to Swanage for a third diver who had to be lifted off one of the local dive boats – the skipper knows his trade well and his quick actions have saved many.

An explanation: Basically (very basic) when you scuba dive your body slowly absorbs nitrogen gas into your bloodstream, this due to the pressure. The diver needs to get rid of the nitrogen when returning to the surface - i.e. decompressing – this done by surfacing slowly and stopping at 6m for a number of minutes. Failure to do this can lead to decompression sickness (DCS) also known as the bends.

The nitrogen gas expands in your bloodstream and tends to settle around your joints, it hurts, and to relive the pain the casualty tends to bend their joints– hence the bends. A minor bend can be just a skin rash. More major symptoms can be caused by said nitrogen bubbles being trapped in the spine, the heart, or the brain- this is not good potentially leading to paralysis or death. All divers are extensively trained in how to deal with situations, and if in doubt the diver is sent for recompression – or potted.

Now with 3 incidents today you might think ‘blimey these divers are terrible!’, not the case. With more people sport diving and doing numerous dives the number of incidents does rise. Swanage and Weymouth tend to be hotspots but this is only due to the high levels of divers and the great diving we have. Thankfully it’s very rare to see someone with decompression sickness. I spent ten years as a diving instructor and with 1000 or so dives under my belt I never saw one person get a bend - thankfully.

Any divers reading this, by way of a reminder you can increase you safety margins by keeping hydrated, setting your dive computer on a more conservative setting, not smoking and cutting down on beer the night before.