Posted by DaveV on August 05, 2001 at 12:50:15:
In Reply to: Catalina fatality Thursday? posted by AADIVER on August 03, 2001 at 17:11:40:
I was suiting up on shore when they surfaced. I guess I know less than you. His buddy (which I also heard was his son) was very upset, of course, and wondering why the response was slow, but it looked pretty fast from where I was. Naturally it must seem like foverever in that situation. A small red inflatable reached them first (far faster than any of us on shore could have made the swim I'll wager) and helped the son hold the man up. I think the son was upset that people weren't jumping in the water, but if you know Casino Point, it's probably not safe to dive in off those rocks, and we could all see the boats coming behind them. Two Harbor patrol boats arrived very, very quickly and the LA County Paramedics were on scene only 2 or 3 min after that. Some one 911ed from the shore but I assume they already were notified by the harbor patrol. I would say that they surfaced about half way between the steps and the corner bouy where the Sujack is. The victim had quite a bit of kelp on him, but anybody would surfacing right there. They started O2 and CPR on the Harbor Patrol boat, but transfered him to the ParaMedic boat pretty quickly where they had more deck space. Watching from a distance you couldn't tell when and even if they "called" it, but clearly they stopped CPR at some point. We were all hoping that the gentelman had revived, but apparnetly not. Observing from shore I would say the that the emergency services response was excellent and very quick. My condolances to any famaily or friends that may see this.