When an unmanned dive-boat circling out of control caught 24-year-old German scuba diver Brian Pethke’s leg it resulted in an amputation – but he could have lost his life had three doctors not been among the divers on a second boat that came to his rescue.
Pethke and friend Mika had been experiencing the celebrated shark-diving site of Tiputa Pass in Rangiroa atoll, French Polynesia on 5 April. “It was supposed to be one of the highlights of our diving vacation,” he said.
“We had booked two dives. The first had already been breath-taking, but the second took us into a world of wonders: dolphins with their baby, sharks and beautiful coral.”
The divers surfaced from their drift-dive shortly before the hour mark. “I was telling my friends that it was one of the most beautiful dives of my life and that I had taken some incredible photos. At that moment, a boat sped past us uncontrollably.”
It took a moment to register that it was their dive-boat. “At first we didn’t realise that the captain had gone overboard. Seconds later, the thing that changed everything happened – the boat hit me.
“I screamed, gasping for air and in agony. When I looked down, all I could say was: ‘Mika, help – my leg is gone!’ The water turned blood-red. Next to me was my dive instructor, who was also hit.” The instructor’s leg had been fractured in two places.
Freak wave
The captain later stated that the boat had been idling at the pick-up point when a freak wave had struck the hull. The impact had caused him to lose his balance and be thrown overboard – leaving the vessel to surge forward unmanned and out of control, turning unpredictably in both tight and wider circles.
Divers still below had videoed the boat describing circles in the water, and another surfaced diver, Gianna F from Switzerland, reported trying to dive in her attempts to avoid it but struggling to stay submerged.
She said that the occupants of a second dive-boat had “put their lives in danger to save us. Our boat was still out of control and could have rammed them”.
Pethke described as a ‘miracle’ the second boat’s arrival. “I remember being pulled aboard and crying out in pain,” he said. “When I looked down, I realised the extent of my injuries.
“I thought I wouldn’t survive. At that moment, I began to give Mika my last words for my loved ones.”
Among the divers on the boat were a French couple and an individual who all happened to be doctors. They were able to staunch the bleeding as the boat raced to the nearest medical centre.
The rescuers were reported to have found only nurses on duty at the facility that Easter Sunday. The doctors from the boat had therefore been allowed access to blood and plasma supplies and administered life-saving transfusions to Pethke themselves.
He and the instructor were later transferred by air-ambulance to hospital on the island of Tahiti, where his lower right leg had to be amputated. The runaway dive-boat had eventually capsized and come to rest on the reef.
Challenging conditions
Local maritime authorities have opened an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident, focusing on sea conditions, vessel-handling and safety procedures during diver-retrieval operations. The strong currents that attract sharks to Tiputa Pass combined with unpredictable surface conditions can make picking up divers challenging there.
After three weeks Pethke was sufficiently stable to undertake the 30hr flight to a Berlin hospital accompanied by two medical professionals, with further surgery in prospect and a quarantine resulting from a wound infection.
Because the diver’s health insurance will cover only part of costs that, flights and medical treatment apart, are expected to include physiotherapy, a prosthesis and home and vehicle adaptation, a GoFundMe appeal was launched and has almost reached its 30,000 euro target.
At the start of May Divernet reported on Spanish scuba diver Borja García Sousa, who within a week of Pethke’s accident lost a leg to a shark in the Maldives while on honeymoon.
