Divers undergo stress debriefing

In the scuba diving community, technical divers are the elite. But nothing prepares them to stare at death in an environment where a simple misstep could also spell their own.

Gerry Reyes, the lead civilian technical diver who volunteered in the search for the missing victims trapped in the sunken MV St. Thomas Aquinas, would call his wife each time he surfaces after each diving sortie.

“I talk to her to reassure my family that I’m all right and talking to my family sort of frees me from the stress and pain I feel each time we go for a dive,” the 59-year-old marine biologist told Cebu Daily News onboard the coast guard search and rescue vessel, BRP San Juan.

Reyes, an officer of the Philippine Coast Guard Auxiliary, said that while he has been diving for 30 years, underwater search missions are totally different.

“This is not a recreational dive where you go underwater to marvel at marine life. My heart breaks each time I see a body floating in the wreckage, especially if it’s the body of a child. I too am a father and I emphatize with the parents of that child,” he said.

“There are times I’d find difficulty sleeping. People don’t see the stress we encounter, but we just put ourselves in the shoes of the families of the victims and that pushes us to carry on.”

The stress that Reyes feels is not isolated. Over two weeks after the Aug. 16 tragic collision of the MV St. Thomas Aquinas and Sulpicio Express Siete off the Lauis Ledge in Talisay City, officials overseeing the search decided to give the divers a break to destress.

Navy spokesman Ensign Jaypee Abuan said divers from the Philippine Navy were given a stress debriefing over the weekend to help them process their mental stress and move on and continue with their mission.

“If the other group of technical diver volunteers will also request for a stress debriefing we can cater to their request,” he added.

Aside from navy frogmen, a team of divers from the Philippine Coast Guard, the PCG Auxiliary and civilian volunteers are participating in the ongoing search efforts.

At depths of more than 130 feet, extreme water pressure requires divers to use a mix of gases, aside from oxygen, like nitrogen and helium.

These dissolved gases need to be released slowly from body tissues by pausing or having safety stops at various depths during the ascent to the surface.

Failure to expel these gases could result in ‘bends’ or decompression sickness which could be fatal.

The Professional Association of Diving Instructors (Padi), one of the world’s leading scuba diving training organizations defines technical diving as other than conventional commercial or recreational diving that takes divers beyond recreational diving limits. It is further defined as an activity that includes one or more of the following: diving beyond 40 meters or 130 feet, required stage decompression, diving in an overhead environment beyond 130 linear feet from the surface, accelerated stage decompression and/or the use of multiple gas mixtures in a single dive.