How To Teach PADI Rescue Diver Exercise 7 (Unresponsive Diver)
one of the most critical skills in the rescue course, Not only for the potential to save a diver from the water but for any diver looking to go professional will need to repeat this in their Divemaster Course and Instructor course.
To Teach this exercise, I don't try to get the student to master it all in one go. I like to break it down into the different components, and then once the student is confident with all the parts, we bring it all together to perform exercise 7.
The first part I teach to the student is the Approach and Assessment of the Diver.
The first part of the approach involves shouting to get the diver's attention. By Calling out something like 'Diver, Diver, are you ok?' repeat this as you get closer. If they do not respond to this once you are in arms reach, use your hand to wave in front of the diver's face.
If this does not respond, you will need to roll the dive on their back if they are face down in the water. To do this, I like to grab the Opasit arms and then roll them over. Once on the there back, you need to establish positive buoyancy for you and the diver. I use this process to do the same as I do to the diver im rescuing. For this, I use Buoyancy, Buoyancy ( This is to inflate both BCDs) Followed by Wights, Wights ( Dropping either wight Pockets or weight belts For this exercise, I like to use empty weight belts for ease of carrying and for the safety of others divers in the water that may be bellow). The next step is Mask; Mask flowed by Reg, Reg. Once you have got to this point, you need ot assess the diver to see if they are breathing or not. You can establish this by using the Look Lisen feels ( You will look for rising and fall of the cheat, Lisen for breathing by putting your ear next to the diver's mouth and finally feel the best place for this is to put your hand on there abdomen. If the diver is not responsive, you need to call for help, so this is done by shouting 'dive shop name, dive shop name. I have an unresponsive, non-breathing diver. Prepare the emergency oxygen and call ems'.
The next part I teach is towing the diver and giving rescue breaths at the same time while having the gear in place. I teach the towing method is one hand on the neck and opening the airway. To give rescue breaths, you need to pitch the nose of the diver put your above your mouth, and I want the student to put their mouth to the finger. When you give the first rescue breath to the diver after establishing they are not breathing, you will provide two rescue breaths then one rescue breath every 5 seconds. I start getting the student to give the rescue breaths stationary. Once they have mastered this, we then move on to doing it while towing. One point to remember is to make sure you don't block the airway when giving the rescue breath, and you cant swap hands or let go of the neck.
After the student has mastered giving rescue breaths and towing, we move on to the equipment removal. There are two ways I teach for this, and I let the students pick which one they want to use. The first way I teach is to start unclipping the unresponsive diver's equipment keeping the waistband in place when you are doing the Look, listen, feel. Once you have established unresponsiveness, you can start towing to either boat or shore. Whilst they are towing the diver, they would begin to unclip their equipment and, when comfortable, They can start to remove ther equipment and remove it when they are ready. The second method is to do your Look, listen, feel, and once you call for help, start towing the diver, then begin to unclip the diver's equipment, then at the same time, begin to unclip their equipment at the same time then remove when they are ready.
The last part of Exercise 7 is to remove the diver from the water. Suppose you are doing this on a boat. In that case, you will bring the driver to parallel with the ladder, you will have the driver just resting on their equipment then once you are ready, you will give 2 Rescue Breaths then you have 30 seconds to get them up the ladder and on the boat or drag them from the water if doing a sore exit.