SCUBASAFETY
Then the air ambulance turned up with very different painkillers on board. I had some Penthrox, which is the new trauma anaesthetic. They straightened my leg out, put it into a temporary cast and carried me up the beach, not that I remember much of that.
Treatment and recovery
They operated on me the following day, when I had a lot of metalwork put in my leg, which is permanent. The tibia was broken into seven pieces and the fibula in half. I’ ve got a great big nail through the middle of the tibia, and then a plate and some screws and four bolts to secure the nail. That was done the next day, the first day of August... I was in hospital for about a fortnight, basically because I couldn’ t get about. I wasn’ t allowed home until I could get up the stairs. By the time I got home I was moderately mobile, but a long way from a full recovery.
I’ m extraordinarily lucky to have got away with it, embarrassed that I managed to make a schoolboy error after 55 years around boats, and extremely grateful to my buddies, the RNLI, our friendly tractor diver and his wife and of course the paramedics. One of my buddies spent 45 minutes holding my hand, which was very sweet and reassuring – it really helped me to remain calm.
I can only commend the RNLI, the Coastguard, the air ambulance and the people at the hospital. The surgeon did a great job. I’ ve got full movement back in the leg and I can walk, though I’ ve still got some muscle weight to put back on. I’ m officially discharged, but the bones won’ t fully fuse for another two years.
I was wearing a heavy, 7.5mm semi-drysuit and that gave a lot of support during the impact, so it was a contained fracture. I was quite fortunate, really. There was a lot of internal bleeding in the leg, but nothing came out... otherwise it would have been a lot more serious. I also cracked a couple of ribs and had a smack on the head.
What can be learned?
We’ ve done a lot of analysis on the incident, and gleaned something that isn’ t in either BSAC or RYA training. I think some of our more experienced people knew it intuitively, but it’ s never been communicated explicitly, and it’ s what we now call the Red Zone.
Here’ s our definition of this danger area: if you draw a line through the two handles just in front of the console on a RIB, any area forward of that is the Red Zone. Do not in any circumstances enter that area when launching or recovering a boat. Do
X-ray of Nick’ s legs post-surgery not go in front of those handles unless you are at least a metre or two away from the boat. If the boat gets picked up and driven forward by the wave, that’ s where it’ s going to impact.
If you’ re in that zone, there is nothing you can do about it. You’ ve got two tonnes of boat coming at you with the full force of the sea behind it. There are exceptions: for instance, if you have to get a painter and it’ s not been clipped off properly, you need to reach in, grab it and get out of there quickly.
Just don’ t put yourself in there. It’ s the most important lesson we learned from this accident, and it’ s the simplest one to communicate. There’ s a load more detail, but that’ s the big one that went straight out pretty much the next day to all our members.
Our decision-making with the recovery plan clearly wasn’ t right. But once the accident occurred there was no sense of panic: the other four guys on board organised themselves, dealt with the boat, dealt with me and called the ambulance. It wasn’ t just me saying no to the Entonox... I heard at least two other people telling the paramedics the same thing. Our training had prepared us well for that moment.
So that all worked really well. My car was put back on my drive by some magical process. My partner was contacted and she met me at the hospital. So all of those policies that we had in place for incident management worked well.
We’ re working with BSAC and RNLI giving feedback to support more detailed launch and recovery guidance; hopefully these will be shared more widely once they are complete.
44