I set up Vectis Expeditions to provide expeditionary diver training and build on 35 years of sport diving experience.; rescue scenarios are a regular feature of diving expeditions I run.  Alongside this diving career (and an equally long engineering career),  I also have over 20 years in the coastguard rescue service.

The diving and coastguard worlds came together in brilliant joint rescue services exercise organised by the islands critical care team paramedics and doctors, supported by A and E doctors, HEMS doctors, Fire and Rescue service critical care team and members from all three of the islands Coastguard Rescue Teams.

As well as the usual mix of car crashes and high-speed boat crash scenarios arranged by colleagues, this time we had a diving incident scenario, which I was tasked with organising.

With the assistance from a member of Wight Dolphins Sub Aqua Club who acted as my buddy (whom also remarkably ended up with a diving related injury),  I got to act out a diver with a complex underlying medical condition and had a patients view of what was happening.  The scenario was based on a real-life diving incident

My coastguards swiftly ‘evacuated’ me and my “rescuer buddy” from the ‘danger zone’ and handed me over to critical care team paramedics for further monitoring and treatment.

My old dry-suit was resurrected from the attic for one last time and sacrificed in the COMO procedure (Clothes Off, Monitoring On) before eventually my condition deteriorated to the point that I was exchanged for the resuscitation manakin, allowing me to watch on as the critical care teams continued to deal with all sorts of complications thrown at them by the faculty lead.

My normal involvement with a range of diving incidents using ends with the casualty being evacuated by helicopter and a blast of downdraft from the aircraft rotors, without seeing what the critical care team do behind closed helicopter or in some cases behind ambulance doors.  This exercise was a great window into their world and their amazing skillset.  It was very reassuring indeed!

HM Coastguard are actively recruiting volunteer coastguard rescue officers not only for my own team on the Isle of Wight but also around the UK.  If you have a desire to help your local community doing something worthwhile generally between the coastguard path and wading depth around the coast, then why not consider becoming a coastguard rescue officer (CRO)

I joined in my early 30s, have got to do some interesting and worthwhile stuff over that time that, including exercises like that described here.  Like many other CROs I have a regular job alongside the coastguard commitment for which I need to thank my employers and clients for their understanding on the generally few occasions meetings do get interrupted by an incoming shout.  If you would like further information then click on this link and read more Volunteer as a coastguard | HM Coastguard UK

Huge thanks to the Island’s Critical Care Team, A&E Doctors, HEMS Doctors, Fire and Rescue service and of course my fellow Coastguard colleagues..

A massive thanks also to the Diving Officer, Gary Paddock from Wight Dolphins Sub Aqua Club who played the role of my ‘buddy’ and said “It was a privilege to be involved and massively informative.  It was wonderful opportunity to introduce BSAC rescue management protocols to emergency teams who thankfully very rarely need to treat a diver”