[BennyB]

Sorry, i'll clarify what I meant. I thought you were meaning that if you just saw someone lying on the bottom of the pool (someone that you hadn't been spotting).

If you see someone blacking out during a dynamic, you should immediately get the person's airway out of the water, support their head (make sure they can't hurt themselves on pool edges etc), take their mask off, gently (not yelling) say their name, and gently blow on their face. If they do not come back within a few moments, say around 30 seconds then you should give a couple of breaths mouth to mouth. This will serve 2 purposes - firstly to pop the glottis open (a laryngospasm will close this off for a small period of time, the breath helps open it again), and secondly to provide air to the victim.

Usually if they have just BO'd and you got them quickly, then this is probably enough and they will regain consciousness. If they haven't come to within a minute, check their vital signs (breathing, pulse at neck) and start administering full EAR (mouth to mouth) or CPR as necessary.

If it was me and I was walking near the pool and found a freediver at the bottom, I would skip the blowing/name calling bit and assume they had drowned, going straight into resuscitation - give 2 quick breaths, check vitals and perform EAR/CPR as necessary.

Either way (BO or drowned), you can't make things worse by giving them a couple of quick rescue breaths. In fact some freedivers give one or 2 breaths as soon as someone blacks out as they believe this helps speed the process up and get them breathing quickly.


I'd like others to chime in here, i've not done a rescue course in years and haven't done a specific freedive resuscitation course, just picked up bits from various dive courses, talking to other freedivers and just common sense.

Cheers,
Ben