Biomed Trauma Week Day Four

SHERIFF'S FLOTILLA

Day Four: recovering a body

• Search and rescue and water safety rules

  • Life Vests are equally as important as a seatbelt.

  • Reach and throw but never go

    • Grab anything to throw in

      • Towels, pool noodles, sticks, shirts, etc

      • Dragging hooks across the bottom

• Flotilla

• If someone is already dead in the water (hit in the head or heart attack), the body will float after a while because of the air in the lungs. But the body will sink if you breathe in the water after falling in.

  • First find where the body went down

    • Divers recover a large amount of the bodies. A rope is placed with a sweep until they hit something. They swim in sweeps or grids

• Legal reasons, family closure, autopsies are some of the reasons to find a body

  • Insurance doesn't cover without a body

  • Longer searches make it harder to find

  • Warmer waters form gasses and rises the body

    • Salt water drowning bodies rise faster

      • Men float face down and women float face up

    • Bodies are all pulled west usually

  • How deep the water is can slow down the deterioration of the bodies

• Negligence can determine if a case is a criminal case or not (under the influence of a criminal or an accident?)