The Psychological Trauma of Diving-Related Incidents
Posted By Divers Alert Network on 13 January 2003
By John R. Yarbrough, Ph.D.
After a dive incident, while we provide due concern and care for the injured diver, we often forget to care for another set of divers involved: the survivors and witnesses of these incidents.
In dive injury or fatality incidents, we usually focus our immediate concern on the injured diver. For trained divemasters or instructors, or for divers who are accustomed to a leadership position, getting involved with the rescue incident is a natural reaction. They may initiate a search for a lost diver, do an in-water diver rescue, call for help, set up the DAN oxygen unit for use or provide cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
But there are many divers - and bystanders - who can do little to assist or feel they don't know how or what to do. Or they are so overwhelmed by the urgency, the fright or the sheer unexpectedness of the event, they are mentally and physically immobilized. At best, they are uncertain about how to move forward with the rescue.
Recently I worked with the wife of an injured diver, who became the uncertain participant. While diving together, she had witnessed her husband having a heart attack. This was his first-ever cardiac episode, and it was quite severe. It frightened her badly. They were out of the country, on a small Caribbean island. As you might guess, there was only a local clinic: no hospital with critical care facilities was nearby.
When I discussed the diver's condition with his wife, I asked her if she wanted to arrange an air evacuation to Miami for advanced medical care. Her answer was, "I don't know, what do you think I should do?"
This question came from an experienced and well-educated diver. Did she have a momentary lapse of clear thought? In a sense, yes. The stress of a sudden burden in a true life-and-death situation had left her confused and unable to make a decision.
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