Posted by Elaine on October 22, 2003 at 10:55:15:
In Reply to: Coroner says late diver fell unconscious due medical ailment posted by Chris on October 21, 2003 at 20:01:05:
A friend and work related teacher of mine died a little over a year ago while diving in Cayman. He had a heart attack while diving. If a heart attack is big enough there is sometimes little you can do, even if highly skilled medical care starts immediately on dry land.
The best thing that divers can do is to learn CPR and complete recsue diver courses. My friend was on a boat packed with highly skilled medical professionals and there was nothing more than CPR that they could do. The way that my group dealt with the loss was to set up a fund and donate defibrillators to the dive resort. At this resort chain in Cayman there is now a defibrillator on each and every one of their dive boats. This is something that Southern California dive clubs could do. I don't think any local dive clubs have really started to think about taking on a project like this yet.