Ocean Triple R: Remote Recovery Research Emergency Care
Courtesy of Nuala Moore, Dingle, Co Kerry, Ireland.
On October 20th and 21st, Nuala Moore hosted the inaugural Ocean Triple R: Remote Recovery Rescue Emergency Care Summit that was attended by medics, nurses, swimmers and event organizers.
“It was amazing and worth bringing all areas that a swimmer in trouble would need to know [so that] we may increase our awareness of the risks we take.”
Moore has been working with World Extreme Medicine and been on the teaching faculty of the Ocean Extreme Medicine while working with extreme events over the last five years and developing insight into the medical and recovery techniques and preparations necessary for cold water immersion and for the unintended outcomes of the cold water swimming and diving. “An area that I am very interested in was the fact that as many swimmers are planning swims, event organizers were maybe taking a step away from safety planning. In the last few years, cold water and ice swimming had become more mainstream than extreme – a lot of people not taking the outcomes into the planning of the swim.
The management of cold water swimming and ice swimming would benefit from a greater knowledge of the physiological impact to the body and cognitive responses as a result of spending time at sub-10°C, the management during and recovery is a significant area for development in particular for teams. Not everyone on a team signs up to manage a casualty situation so honesty and understanding for everyone is critical.
Getting and managing an unconscious swimmer in the water, administering rescue breaths and egresses are a huge area of teaching.
We look at research, but we need to look at it in an applied manner: how does it impact the swimmer and the team.
We will develop modules inside this model to apply to all areas of water users: teams, boats, event organizers, scuba diving and kayaking.”
Goals of Ocean Remote, Recovery and Rescue Emergency Care:
* To allow water users to enter the water more educated
* To have the ability to process novel challenges as problems occur especially at low water temperatures
* To have an understanding of impact to our bodies as a result of swimming/using water at low temperatures
* To create awareness of the unintended outcomes for sports/water users
* To supply information-based training and skill development for emergencies
* To create awareness and procedures for remote emergency care as time zero starts with the incident, mostly to assist and prepare all water users to manage a situation and prepare for transfer of the casualty if required to rescue services, helicopters, and land-based medical care
* To create a pathway for understanding areas of team dynamics and emotional responses on logical thinking and panic situations and decision-making
Workshops:
* In-water mouth-to-mouth, administering 5 breathes while conducting an in-water rescue
* Management of remote trauma water-related
* Egresses of conscious and unconscious swimmers
* Management of panicked swimmers
* Communication of casualty and transfer to rescue services
Contributors:
* Dr Patrick Buck: cold water injuries and immersion, preparation and drowning
* Dr Niamh Feely, a consultant anaesthetist, diver and extreme medic: areas of pre-hospital procedures, communications and hospital care for cold water injuries
* Dr Ann Payne, a psychiatrist and extreme medic and wilderness: panic and psychological impact
* David Hicks, a specialist in remote care/trauma: offer REC on modules
* Sandra Fitzgibbon, a course director in scuba diving: risk management, safety planning and dive injuries, how to manage a rescue incident
* Rory Golden: situational awareness and management of equipment in the event of a diving incident
* Mallow Search and Rescue: search pattern and what users will do better to manage tides to assist MSRU
* Nuala Moore: observer forms for ice swims, channel swims, marathon swims
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