RescuEAN

By Charles Hood, Dive Magazine - July 2007

Picture the scene - you have an unconscious shallow-breathing diver who is being administered oxygen.

 £89.95 - Pod & tubing

Picture the scene - you have an unconscious shallow-breathing diver who is being administered oxygen. After 20 minutes the oxygen is depleted, however, there is still another half an hour until you can reach port and the emergency services. On board you have several half-used Nitrox cylinders, but these are connected to conventional diving regulators. What if you could use this oxygen enriched air to give to the patient?

This is the scenario that RescuEAN's inventors Chris Wood and Martin Kerley hypothesised when they recently attended a rescue course. They were informed by their instructor that there was no way that Nitrox could be given to an unconscious diver because the cylinders only had demand valves attached to them.

After the course they set out to produce a device that could remedy this situation. They thought the easiest method would be to use the connection on the BC inflator hose. Their solution is a pressure-reducing valve with internal flow control that connects directly to a direct feed at one end and to a tube and mask at the other. Named the RescuEAN, this allows any gas from a conventional diving set to be administered to an unconscious or conscious diver. The flow can be set at either 15 or 25 litres per minute by simply rotating the body of the unit, and delivers the Nitrox via the attached 1.5m-long 5 mm-diameter clear tubing to the oral/nasal face mask.

We tested an early production model at the DIVE test centre and I asked Martin Kerley who the product was aimed at? He explained: 'The aim behind the development of the RescuEAN unit was to fill the gap between basic emergency first response, that is mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, and the accepted best form of oxygen provision, the full 100-per-cent oxygen rescue kit.

'It is also for the personal use of certified rescue divers using Nitrox and finding themselves in a situation where a full oxygen kit is unavailable.'

During our test, we simulated the scenario above using a 75-per-cent Nitrox mix. It worked just as described and got us all thinking a bit more - if it works for Nitrox, it would work for 100-per-cent oxygen as well. So the RescuEAN can quickly convert any oxygen-filled diving cylinder into an oxygen kit! In fact, I would go as far to say this device could replace expensive oxygen kits altogether, enabling dive boats to carry any oxygen-clean cylinder and regulator, dispensing with special fitting and valves.

To my mind this product is a must for every boat that carries divers - I just hope they've manufactured enough of them.

        VERDICT :  Could become an essential piece of kit - Value 8/10  Performance - 9/10

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