OUCH! Diver spears himself in groin

January 2, 2009

Rebecca Marshall

Greg Robertson had to be winched to an Energex helicopter after his groin was punctured. Photo: Michaela O’Neill/180206

Mooloolah carpenter Greg Robertson is recuperating in Nambour hospital after a sickening accident in which he speared himself in the groin area with a speargun at Coolum yesterday.

The drama unfolded off the rocks at Point Perry about 3.30pm when the 25 year old was pushed onto the speargun, which had been washed out of his hands by a wave.

The two metre long spear pierced his inside upper thigh, just millimetres from his genitals and femoral artery, and lodged several centimetres under the skin.

The first time spear fisherman had been enjoying a day at the beach with his girlfriend Jacinta Fisher and mates Casey Jensen and her fiance, who unscrewed the spear from the gun when the accident happened.

It remained lodged in place and sticking out from his body as paramedics gave pain relief and packed around the wound.

“A big wave knocked him into the rocks, he lost his spear and the spear rebounded off one of the rocks and got him right near the groin,” Casey said.

“The spear’s barbed on the end, so it’s locked in there. He got up and said ‘It’s in me, it’s in me!

“He’s ok now. He’s still conscious and talking.

“He’ll probably have a laugh about it in a week. We joked about it…we told them to not spear themselves and mistake themselves for a fish and then it actually happened.”

Brisbane holidaymakers Doug and Richard saw the accident happen and called triple 0.

“The girlfriend was holding him and we were all quite anxious because he was walking around the rocks and slipping and sliding with this spear hanging out and we’re yelling out, ‘Stop, don’t move, the ambulance is coming’,” Doug said.

Richard communicated with the two couples from the headland above.

“He seemed to be ok, but he was in shock,” he said.

“He was very close to being in real trouble.”

The Energex Community Rescue Helicopter dropped off two crew on the nearby rocks and then performed a winch rescue in front of hundreds of onlookers who had gathered for the spectacle.

Those who had stationed themselves right on the Point Perry lookout tower had the best view, as the chopper hovered right at their eyeline for the winch.

“The challenge for the crew was how to remove the two metre long spear to something that was manageable,” Energex crew member Dan King said.

“They stabilised the bit that was lodged in his leg and unscrewed the long pole so there was only six or seven inches sticking out.

“He certainly could have come off a lot worse than he did. Initially he did say that he thought he got washed into another rock, but when the wave drew back he realised, ‘Oh dear, there’s a big metal thing stuck in my leg’.

“Hopefully he’ll make a full recovery.

“And I asked him if he caught any fish and he didn’t. But if you are going to have one bump a year, you may as well get it out of the way of the first day of the year.”

Mr Robertson had surgery to remove the spear last night.

via OUCH! Diver spears himself in groin | General | Coast news | thedaily.com.au.

OzSail and Scuba Instructor Kylie Irwin to face criminal charges

 

Neely and Dalton

Australia · 01 January 2009
Source: CDNN
Submitted by: Simon Goodchild

Investigators say charges should be laid against the boat firm and scuba instructor who left two divers off the Great Barrier Reef.

Miracle dive couple Richard Neely and Allyson Dalton survived a 19-hour ordeal after being lost at sea during a Whitsundays dive expedition.

Now a Queensland Workplace Health and Safety report, after a six-month investigation, has found their failure to be picked up was due to “operator error”.

The report has recommended Airlie Beach-based dive company OzSail and its former dive trip director Kylie Irwin face charges.

State Government officials yesterday confirmed the report was being reviewed by a senior officer before being sent to a legal team.

“Legal officers will examine it to see whether it will lead to charges and to see whether there has been a breach of the Act,” a spokesman said.

Despite the high-profile case, which made headlines worldwide and sparked a media bidding war, officials are refusing to publicly release the document.

The British scuba instructor, 38, and his American girlfriend, 40, sold their incredible tale of survival in an international magazine and television deal rumoured to be worth as much as $250,000.

Rescuers found Mr Neely and Ms Dalton – experienced divers with more than 2000 dives – clinging together for warmth after they were swept 15km out to sea on May 26.

The couple told how crew and passengers failed to spot them waving a red safety inflatable as a strong current dragged them away from their dive boat, the Pacific Star.

“We were shouting and whistling but nobody saw us,” Mr Neely said.

“The boat stayed where it was, on a mooring, but we just kept drifting further away.”

Their disappearance on Bait Reef, northeast of Hayman Island, sparked a huge search, involving seven helicopters, three planes and a flotilla of boats, estimated to have cost $170,000.

Their harrowing ordeal was compared to that of the American couple Tom and Eileen Lonergan, who disappeared off Port Douglas in far north Queensland in 1998 and were never found. That tragedy was the inspiration for a movie, Open Water.

Mr Neely and Ms Dalton, a dive master, tied themselves together with rope from a marker buoy and desperately waved to helicopters that flew overhead every 45 minutes.

Mr Neely said he clung to Ms Dalton every half an hour, wrapping his legs around her and pressing their stomachs together for warmth.

The couple also jettisoned (scuba) tanks and (weight) belts to make themselves lighter.

 

Mr Neely said: “If I could see Ally getting weak, or Ally could see me getting weak, one of us would shout, ‘I love you’.”The QWHS findings offer a ringing endorsement for the couple after they were accused by some in the dive industry of a “stunt”.

OzSail owner Shannon Platt and company manager Fraser Yule did not return calls to The Courier-Mail.

In a separate incident, QWHS are also investigating the death of Taiwanese snorkeller Jade Huawg, 25, who was pulled from the water unconscious and died during an OzSail chartered reef trip to Hook Island last month.

via Scuba Diving News.