Rob and Martin attended the DDRC‘s ‘Dive Accident Responder’ course on Saturday 17th March 2018. (Garry attended it in 2017.)
The day included:
- A practical refresher of basic life support (BLS), including oxygen administration and automated external defibrillation (AED)
- A presentation on decompression illness, and the ‘five minute neuro exam’, including practice carrying it out
- Talks from the RNLI and HM Coastguard on their search and rescue techniques and helicopter operations, including an accident management scenario discussion
- A dry dive to 40 metres
- A backstage tour of the recompression chamber facilities.
There was plenty of opportunity to ask questions of the three diving docs during the day. They were happy to answer our many our questions about decompression illness, decompression algorithms/gradient factors, PFO, and headaches during diving.
The dry dive demystified the recompression chamber, useful should we ever be unfortunate enough to need it [need it again you mean—Ed], and also enabled an informal test of nitrogen narcosis susceptibility [like having had three pints for one of us!].
This was an excellent day, and a bargin at only £60 including lunch! Unfortunately Force 7 winds led to the cancellation of our planned diving on Sunday and so we came back early, but notwithstanding that it was well worth the journey to Plymouth.
Look out for this course in February 2019!