Diver Accident Responder Course

Diving Diseases Research Centre (DDRC) advertised a new course on Facebook, the Divers Accident Responders Course (DARC). It sounded interesting so we signed up. We chose the Saturday course rather than mothers day.

We arrived at DDRC around 8:45 and signed in. We attached our badges and joined the rest of the attendees for the introduction. The attendees were split into four groups, the four groups would rotate through four different areas (stations) covering different aspects of the course.

We were in the red group and started with a tour of the recompression facility and a dry dive. I have had a dry dive before and was more interested in the operation of the chamber, so stayed outside to watch. The rest of the group entered the chamber and were compressed down to 40m for 10 minutes, then decompressed with some deco stops. I watched the operation, which all seemed quite straightforward but there's always more going on rather than a few levers. After the dry dive we were shown the rest of the recompression chambers. Station one over.

A quick tea break and off to Station two, Basic Life Support. Most of our group had done some kind of BLS training before, it's always good to refresh and get a slightly different view of things. Our tutors for the section were from different backgrounds than ones I have had before, so the course was slightly different. It covered basic chest compressions and rescue breaths with some reference to Vinnie Jones and his 'Staying Alive' technique as seen on TV. The TV version is for the average person on the street with no BLS training, whereas we are told to give rescue breaths if we could. After a quick practice with some 'Little Annies' and the various oxygen administration setups, we were shown the Automatic External Defibrillators and their use. It's been five or six years since I last tried and AED, they are even easier to use now.

Lunch was then provided and what a good buffet it was.

Station three was recognising DCI, what it is, how it happens and then a 5 minute neuro exam for suspected DCI injuries. Again all very good and a slightly different version of the 5 minute neuro we have seen before.

Tea break and then station four. Station 4 was split between some case studies taken from the DDRC case files with some interesting information regarding surveys that had taken place by DDRC, and, an insight into the role of the Maritime and Coastgaurd Agency & Coast Gaurd. Both were very interesting and having taken part in some of DDRC's surveys it was good to see the results. Ken Bazeley, MCA national diving liaison officer, did a very interesting presentation that couldn't have been better on the subject.

So what did we learn from the weekend? For us, well lots of little bits of information from each station. The most significant would be the use of an AED on a boat like ours, it is usable knowing what to do, so a possible future investment. Another useful snippet was the use of personal Automatic Information Systems (AIS) locators. AIS has been compulsory on all vessels over 300 tons, it would tell any boats with a receiver what was around them. A new personal AIS would let any boat with a receiver within 4 miles know of that persons location, one of the units was rated to 60m. I can see these catching on with some divers who have been worried after seeing the film Open Water.

All together an excellent day and well worth the money. If you are a diver, do this course.