Scuba Geek

Boy saves his older brother by performing CPR after freediving accident June 16, 2006

Posted by Andy Carroll in : Accidents, CaveDiving, Freediving, News , trackback

Taylor Smith was lucky to have been freediving with his brother on a freediving trip to Blue Spring Cave. The cave is 120ft deep and freedivers sometimes find air pockets which accumulate due to expelled air from scuba divers exiting the cave. It seems Taylor found one of these pockets and fell unconscious. He was then dragged out of the cave by his brother, Wesley Smith and another buddy, Brian Cummings, and the help of other divers.

From Bradenton.com;

“He couldn’t stand up - he couldn’t remember what happened,” said Koehler, 64, of The Villages. “We tried to get him up and he fell back down.”

Taylor was conscious as he was loaded onto a sheriff’s helicopter and flown to Florida Hospital Orlando, where he was put in a decompression chamber for several hours, his father, Cameron Smith, said. He was expected to be fine.

The pockets of expelled air will contain a high percentage of carbon dioxide and this of course, is dangerous if breathed for any amount of time, so Taylor was lucky to have people around to save his life.