The ability to improvise and being resourceful help to increase your readiness and efficiency.
Get trained in the use of the rescue gear and stow it where you can easily get it if needed.
Managing an emergency means you should have equipment readiness and personal readiness.
Your physical and mental preparedness comes from regular training exercises and increasing your strength and stamina for a real-life emergency situation.
Preparation for a diver emergency also means having some specialized equipment available for use in scuba accidents.
If you dive far away from access to medical care, you may benefit from taking a well-stocked first aid kit and other scuba diving supplies with you on hand.
A good first aid kit can easily be suited to diving by adding a few extra items, such as a divers pocket mask, vinegar with hot and cold packs for jellyfish stings.
First Aid kits usually last for years with occasional replenishing of the stock and medicines. They are also useful for non-diving emergencies.
Special scuba rescue equipment could also include an oxygen delivery system, an automated external defibrillator, spare air, and the Nautilus LifeLine Marine Rescue GPS.
Rescue scuba gear packages are for sale online or through commercial diving equipment suppliers such as DAN. They have an extensive list of oxygen and associated diving gear for sale.
The DAN safety shop is where you can buy text books in diving medicine, injuries, and information about how many scuba divers die each year (worldwide).
They also sell first aid and safety products such as oxygen units, resuscitator masks, defibrillator trainers, CPR manikins.
A waterproof VHF-GPS radio for divers. You can use the Nautilus to communicate to your boat or another vessel via VHF radio. It will transmit your GPS position in an emergency.
The smallest redundant scuba emergency bottle to use in an out-of-air emergency ascent. The small cylinder is often called a 'Pony' which is usually attached to the diver's buoyancy jacket. The Spare Air can provide enough air to independently reach the surface in most urgent ascents.
In fact, PLBs use GPS technology to pinpoint your exact location and then transmits your personal information to the Coast Guard. These transmitters are meant to be registered to its owner, so that when it is activated they know the identity details of who they are looking for.
The unit is designed for boaters and is waterproof to approximately five meters and small enough to fit inside a compact waterproof box.
Audible signaling devices can be heard up to a quarter of a mile away. Sometimes you need to make a noise to get noticed. This may mean an old-fashioned whistle or using air horns that are powered by compressed air.
They can be used as an underwater attention-getter, or at the surface making a high-pitched 'quack quack' duck call. The air horn is plugged in between your inflater and the low-pressure hose.
Evidence suggests that administering oxygen promptly is the most important step to a diver suspected of suffering near drowning, lung over-expansion injury or decompression sickness. Oxygen first aid can make a dramatic difference in the effectiveness of the immediate condition and subsequent treatment.
There are three primary categories of emergency oxygen equipment. Rescue divers are trained in the use of continuous flow units and non-resuscitator demand valve systems but positive pressure resuscitator units require special paramedic level training. Generally, oxygen kits have a tank with compressed gas, a mask and a regulator assembly.
A diver down flag and float is used to warn boaters that scuba divers are in the near vicinity and the red-and-white flag or the blue alpha flag may be required by law in some areas.
You fly the diver's flag from a float that can be towed from below. The flag may be displayed from the dive boat if it stays in the immediate dive-site area.
Often called a safety sausage, Surface Marker Buoy (SMBs) are brightly colored tubes that a diver inflates usually at the time of the safety stop. The signal tube is flexible and lightweight and usually stored in the BC pocket or attached by a ring. When inflated at the surface, they increase the visibility of the diver especially in rough seas.
A dive light and strobe is a must if you are night diving. The strobe will double as an alert if the dive light fails. The aqua strobe is a small, compact device that can be mounted in several positions or attached by a lanyard. They are capable of repeatedly flashing for many hours depending on the battery life.
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