Each of the chamber crew has a checklist of work to be done to get the chamber on-line. The fire control system is activated and checked. Fire danger is small but taken seriously given the high oxygen pressure in the chamber, so inside the chamber are six overhead sprinklers and a fire hose. Various valves on the chamber operations panel, the chamber blow-down panel and the BIBS gas panel are opened and closed. Pressures are checked as the high-pressure storage banks come on line. The building begins to vibrate and shake as the big Ingersoll-Rand compressor whines into life. Meanwhile, Schob, acting as the tender today, lays out the IV kit, cardiac kit, airway kit, pulse oximeter and EKG/defibrillator next to the gurney where they’ll be handy to the paramedics. The diver is now about 30 minutes away.
3:58 p.m.
MV Adventure, Santa Barbara Island
Aboard the dive boat, antennas and masts that might be hit by rotor blades have been lowered. The other divers have hurriedly packed their gear and are inside the cabin, out of the way and out of the 100-mph rotor wash.
LCDR Wahlig holds the Dolphin about 30 feet over the boat’s aft deck while rescue swimmer Tom Bolin clips onto the cable. Flight mechanic Pat Hirst conns the helo closer–”forward and right 40, forward and right 30″–and lowers Bolin toward the boat. This is tricky: a random air current or a freak wave could smash Bolin against the steel boat. But this time he reaches the deck safely. Next comes the litter, a padded steel cage. Then Bolin goes below to meet his patient while the helo moves off a safe distance.
After breathing oxygen for an hour, Conrad feels much better. At the same time, he no longer denies the obvious: that he’s in serious trouble. Everyday worries about his job, his family and the car that needs repair have been swept off his mental desktop. He is entirely focused now on one thing: getting well.
Bolin sees the anxiety in Conrad’s eyes, and in order to calm him a little, he explains in detail what will happen next. Bolin straps him tightly into the litter along with a small oxygen bottle. Wahlig brings the helo over the deck again. Hirst drops the cable and reels in first the litter, then Bolin. The helo is away for Catalina Island 24 minutes after arrival on scene.
4:33 p.m.
Helicopter Pad, Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber
Just two hours after climbing out of the water, Ryan Conrad arrives at the hyperbaric chamber. He is transferred to a gurney and wheeled into the adjacent hangar that houses the chamber, while Coast Guard Rescue 6584 lifts off for the flight home.
Meanwhile, paramedics have begun giving Conrad physical and neurological exams. Until the hyperbaric physician