Update: Rescuers Find Five of the People Trapped in the Flooded Laos Cave

Rescuers from Laos and Thailand, who have been working to reach seven people trapped inside a flooded cave system in northern Laos, in an incident drawing comparisons with the 2018 Thai cave rescue, have located five people alive, reports on Facebook show.

Tech and Training

Emergency teams, which have been racing to reach seven people trapped inside a cave in Laos after heavy rainfall caused rising water levels to block their exit routes, have now found five people alive.

According to international news reports, the group became stranded inside the cave system last week when sudden flooding cut off access passages and complicated rescue efforts. Thai cave rescue specialists have since joined local authorities in the operation.

Divers Adrift – Surviving Being Lost at Sea

Exploration isn’t easy — if it were, everyone would do it. The reality is that the next big shipwreck to be found may be hundreds of miles from the nearest coast, tucked into a remote cove hours from civilization or in an area with huge tidal currents. 

Tech and Training
DAN

The more difficult a wreck is to get to, the more rewarding its discovery, but also the more likely it is that you’ll run into trouble during or after your dive. Challenges become hazards quickly, and many offshore adventures are rife with risk factors that make it more likely that you’ll surface from your dive without a boat in sight.

Whether your charter sprung a leak and became a new dive site or drifted off in search of another diver here’s what you need to know to survive.

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A Stretcher In Deep Water

That’s it! We managed to take a stretcher to a depth of 54 meters and a total distance of more than 450 meters. What a human and technical achievement!

Words:
Jean-Pierre Baudu
Michel Ribera
Images:
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Tech and Training

At the same time, we had to observe the rules set forth by the Spéléo Secours Français—the French Cave Diving Association. We set up a trimix dive, with nitrox decompression and oxygen.

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Rescue in Remote locations

Do you plan to explore a deep virgin wreck? Is it your dream to discover a unique cave system deep in the jungle? Have you heard about a Blue Hole miles off shore and want to give it a try? In any case, chances are you’ll be diving in a remote location where emergency medical systems are not much more frequent and up-to-date than traffic lights in the Himalayas.

Words:
Cedric Verdier
Images:
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Tech and Training
Medical & Fitness

What constitutes an emergency and what kind of emergency may I face?

What do I need to bring in order to reasonably deal with possible emergencies?

In other words: How remote is remote, and is it necessary to have a physician present 24/7?

Setting up emergency procedures

All sorts of problems can happen when you’re in a remote location. However, many small injuries can easily be treated on-site. No need to call in a medivac helicopter and team of paramedics for a small cut or a hangover.

Therefore, only four main emergency procedures should really be considered:

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Rescuing a Rebreather Diver

How to deal with an unconscious rebreather diver?

The title of this article was originally: “What to do if a convulsion happens”. Based on a lot of discussion, private or on various forums, the protocol being presented here can actually be used for any kind of situation where an unconscious rebreather diver is found underwater.

Words:
Images:
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Tech and Training

The purpose of this article is to provide some guidelines on how to safely and efficiently deal with an unconscious diver. These guidelines are meant to be:

Simple and easy to remember. In a real life emergencies rescue techniques are always more complex to perform and more difficult to remember, even if the rescuer practises it on a regular basis.

CCR Divers entering water
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