AQUATICS UNDERWATER RECOVERY AND RESCUE INC.

(A NON FOR PROFIT ORGANIZATION)


The Aquatics Unit was formed in 1969 after its founding members recovered a 3-year old child from a body of water in Highland, IN. The experience made it clear that an underwater emergency response team was needed in Indiana's Lake County area.

The Aquatics are a specially trained unit of experienced scuba divers with the latest U/W technology and water emergency equipment. The unit consists of up to 24 highly qualified and professional divers with thousands of hours of combined water time. All members must be Master Diver Certified when they join the unit.

The Aquatics provide citizens with a highly-trained, properly-equipped, and disciplined team of experienced U/W Rescue Specialist. On call 24 hours a day, in times of hardship or emergency, they are dispatched by the Lake County Police Department and supported by the Sheriff.

As a unit of rare talent in the Midwest, the Aquatics services are not limited to Lake County alone. The Aquatics have been called to assist numerous police and fire departments in a five-state area, locating and recovering evidence, weapons, victims, and vehicles hidden in lakes, rivers, and quarries.

Emergency 911
Emergency (219)-755-3333
Emergency (219)-942-0016

COLD WATER-NEAR DROWNING

In 1977, Dr. Martin J. Nemioff of the University of Michigan Hospital gave new meaning to the term "Dive Rescue Specialist." For years, rescuers and doctors alike assumed that a drowning victim, after four minutes underwater, could not be revived without brain damage. So, unless a rescue diver is immediately available, it was a matter of recovering a body, not rescuing a victim.

Dr. Memiroff, however, has documented the survival of a significant number of persons who were submerged, without oxygen, in cold water (below 70 F) for 4-to-45 minutes. The cold water reduces the oxygen needs of the tissues and stimulates the "Mammalian Diving Reflex", which greatly reduces the blood supply to the skin, muscles, and abdomen, and reserves the remaing blood oxygen for the brain, heart, and lungs. The action of this reflex helps cold-water near-drowning victims to recover without brain damage or other physical impairment.

Therefore, a rescue diver doesn't give up, even if the victim appears dead. The victim may be cold, blue, not breating, have no detectable pulse or heartbeat, and have fixed dilated pupils. But as soon as the victim is pulled out of the water, CPR should be started and continued until ambulance personnel arrive to take over.