SAFETY
The Anatomy of a Lawsuit Part One: The First Critical Hours by Al Hornsby , Singapore & William Cline , TX
E DITOR’S NOTE: This series is intended to help dive professionals understand the operational and legal process that may follow a serious diving accident. It is not legal advice. Laws, reporting requirements and insurance policies vary by location. Dive operators should review their emergency procedures with their training agencies, insurance providers and qualified local attorneys. Accidents happen to even the safest operations and instructors. If you work with enough people, someone will need emer- gency medical care, even if you do everything 100% correctly. No dive professional begins the day expecting to manage a serious accident. We arrive at the store, resort or boat expecting to take people diving and bring them back with great stories to tell. Then something happens. A diver fails to surface with the group. A customer is found unresponsive. Someone shows symptoms of decompression illness. A diver suffers a medical emergency underwater. Suddenly, a normal day becomes one that may affect the injured diver, the family, the staff and the business for years. When that happens, your first responsibility is not protecting yourself from a lawsuit. It is protecting life. However, the decisions made during those first critical minutes may later become part of an insurance investigation, government inquiry or lawsuit. The best way to protect the diver and the business is to respond professionally, follow the emergency action plan and create an honest record of what occurred. Preparation Begins Before the Accident The quality of an emergency response is usually determined before the emergency happens. Every dive operation should have a written emergency action plan for each location where it operates (As Jeff McNutt wrote in our April ’26 issue). A general plan sitting in a binder at the store is not enough. A remote shore-diving site may require a different response from a charter boat, swimming pool or resort. The plan should identify: Who takes charge ▪ Who enters the water ▪
Who calls emergency services ▪ Who prepares oxygen and first-aid equipment ▪ Who records important times ▪ Who controls the other customers ▪ Where the injured diver will be transported ▪ How emergency personnel will reach the location ▪ Who communicates with the diver’s family ▪ Who contacts the insurer, training agency and manage- ▪ ment Divers Alert Network (DAN) recommends calling local emergency medical services first and then contacting DAN during a diving emergency. DAN also stresses that an emergency action plan should be clear enough for someone unfamiliar with the operation to help activate it. The plan should be practiced, not simply written and forgotten. DAN even offers emergency-planning guidance.
Emergency oxygen, first-aid supplies and an AED must be accessible, inspected and ready. Staff should know where the equip- ment is and how to use it within the limits of their training. An emergency is the wrong time to discover that an oxygen
When an accident happens, your fi rst responsibility is not protecting yourself from a lawsuit. It is protecting life.
cylinder is empty, the mask is missing or no one knows the address of the nearest hospital (see William Cline’s boat prep article, May ’26). The Emergency Comes First When an accident occurs, medical care takes priority over photographs, witness statements, insurance calls and internal paperwork. The exact response will depend on the circumstances, but the basic priorities remain consistent: 1. Recover the diver without creating another victim. 2. Begin appropriate first aid, CPR, oxygen or AED use. 3. Activate local emergency services. 4. Assign one person to coordinate communications. 5. Arrange transportation or evacuation. 6. Account for the other divers and staff. 7. Record important times when doing so will not interfere with care. Someone should note when the diver was recovered, when first aid began, when emergency services were called and when the patient was transferred. These times can later be compared with telephone records, vessel logs and emergency
14 | SCUBA DIVING INDUSTRY
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