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First aid kits to arrive soon at dive spots
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Posted on Jun 15 2008
Scuba divers on Saipan can take comfort in the knowledge that potentially life-saving first aid kits will soon be on hand at some of the island’s most popular dive spots.
“This will be good on so many levels,” said John Hirsch, executive director of Saipan’s local Red Cross chapter, which is funding the effort. “There’s a real need for it here in the community.”
The $8,000 kits—containing automatic electric defibrillators able to jumpstart a stopped heart, an oxygen tank, an epinephrine injector pen and basic first aid equipment—could guard against episodes like the November 2007 death of Myung Hyun Song, according to Mike Tripp, a dive instructor and video producer who has organized the plan.
Song, a Korean tourist, had cancelled a dive while at Lau Lau Bay after complaining of chest pains and later collapsed on the beach. The rough roads leading to the bay prevented an ambulance from reaching her before she died, Tripp noted.
“One thing that could have helped her would have been an automatic defibrillator,” Tripp said. “This could definitely save lives.”
Kits will be placed at three dive sites on Saipan, Tripp said, the Grotto, Lau Lau Beach and Obyan. The security company tasked with guarding those sites, G4S Security Services, will bring them to the sites each morning in large cases and leave with them at the end of each day, he added.
Before the kits are put in place, however, Tripp and Hirsch plan to start a training program to instruct the security staff and divers on how to use the defibrillators and basic first aid, with the first training course set to begin in the coming weeks.
“The goal is to have all of the dive instructors on island be trained,” Tripp said, adding he is considering whether to approach local government officials about proposing a regulation that would require dive companies to have staff proficient in first aid.
Yet for now, the first aid kits will themselves will give nervous tourists the reassurance they might need to give Saipan’s world renowned diving sites a try.
“It shows tourists the dive companies here are proactive about safety,” Tripp added.
