I am freelancing since a while like many know. Being trained in one of the best PADI-Dive-center in the Philippines my safety-thinking is relatively high developed and I try to explain that to my students and divers many times why I suggest doing it “this way” instead of “that”.

A couple of weeks ago I received the weekly newsletter of Asia Divers, the Shop in Puerto Galera which is mainly responsible why I am in the Philippines. (and of course the brilliant owners and staff there…) Guess I earned my Brownie Points now … hehe

Usually newsletters are about fun and how wonderful everything is. In that edition was another sort of story and before I continue, I wanna let you read it first.. (the following is partially copy/pasted from the original Asia Divers Newsletter)

Not every day goes they way we would like and certainly, like anywhere, the unexpected happens. On Monday the 9th of March we had the most unexpected when one of our new students who had only just gotten into the pool to do a “Discover Scuba” had what we think was a stroke! Our man who we will not name had just put his head under the water when he started to act a little abnormal and within a few seconds lost consciousness. Thanks to the quick work by Peter, Jamie and Brad, our man was out of the water, suit cut off and CPR was being administered. During the few minutes of CPR Dave raced in with a defibrillator in hand and set up for shock treatment. After a series of two shocks and sets of CPR our man gasped his breathing, and stayed so, till we managed to get him in record time to Batangas St Patrick’s hospital. Needless to say we were all in a state of shock and disbelief….

Things like that are happening, and I was also involved in several accidents (as rescuer, not victim). While reading it, many things went through my mind. I remember that while I was working there we had several cases, quite interesting that no diving problem was involved there… Here in Dumaguete I had one serious one with a DM of the resort I was working in.

During my time here in the Philippines I saw so many “highly-trained” people including Course Directors, Staff Instructors, and Dive-Master running around like chicken without head, making wrong decisions or are under the influence of a “special tip in advanced” and simply risking the life of customer who trust them in their judgment.

I definitely know not one single dive-shop (including PADI-CDC) who have a defibrillator. One shop has a training-model and I rented it for one of my rescue courses and guess what… broken zipper and no batteries… by the way CDC means Career Development Centre… hmmm

I will analyze the situation further in the next article ‘cause I need to get some diving done first…

Cheers for now and happy weekend

Rhoody