Saving Lives at Sea

On February 1, 2017, while on a cruise, I went on a dive excursion. It started out fine, but soon into the dive, I began to experience difficulty in breathing due to a chest cold. I told the dive master I needed to ascend and proceeded to the surface. The next thing I remember was regaining consciousness in the Peebles Hospital ER. I wasn’t aware of anything going on at the time, of course, but I have since learned that from the time the distress call came into VISAR’s base at 10:45 am, 38 minutes later, I was at Peebles Hospital. WOW!! Especially in my case, why is this such a big deal? During my four days in ICU, I was told that when I arrived at the ER, my organs had begun to shut down. The doctor’s comment was actually “it was critical that you got here so fast”. I started to ask what she meant, but then stopped because I realized the answer. I truly owe my life to VISAR and will financially support it for the rest of my life.

Very helpful and caring. Last night, they rescued my nephew, Alex, a fisherman and his family at sea. God bless all of them for putting their lives at risk to rescue others.

To the guys who volunteered their services, thank you so much for coming to the rescue of Dave, after he dislocated his artificial hip.  We so appreciated your thorough assessment of David’s situation and want to thank you wholeheartedly. You’re the best! Thank you!

I truly owe your team my life. I don’t even know how to begin to thank you for giving me a second chance at life.  What an amazingly special group of men and women you all are, I wish I could explain how thankful and grateful I am that you came to my rescue, but I will find a way to thank you properly.  You are all such special people and you will always have a big place in our hearts. Thank you, thank you, thank you

I lost balance and fell into the shower cracking several ribs on the lip of the shower.  Then I tried standing next to the bar in the salon.  As I was standing, I started to get lightheaded. I immediately sat down again.

Our boat was anchored near Bitter End Yacht Club. Your boat showed up in approximately 30-45 minutes.  They carefully loaded my wife and I on the rescue boat and we started toward Tortola.  They put me on oxygen which proved to be a wise idea. As it turned out I had punctured the sac around my left lung and had severe internal bleeding that was impeding my breathing. As a result of the wonderful assistance that I got from your volunteers, I expect to make a full recovery.  For that, I am extremely grateful and write to tell you my gratitude.  Please convey my deep gratitude to your volunteers. They saved my life.

During a dive at the RMS Rhone, one of my Sergeant’s experienced a medical emergency at a depth of about 50 feet…A crew of three VISAR volunteers responded to the scene within about 20 minutes of the phone call.  The crew was extremely professional, knowledgeable, and reassuring.  Thankfully, Sergeant Henderson made a quick recovery and further treatment was not necessary.
From one group of first responders to another, I would like to thank the volunteers who responded that day for their time, effort and dedication to public service