Every year 150,000 people around the world drown. The United States has lost an average of 5000 citizens each year since 1978. "Reach, Throw, Don't Go" has been the predominant intervention philosophy during this period due to the loss of life often experienced by those attempting a water entry rescue. What is implied is to await professional response. The problem is that in unguarded waters professional response arrives too late. A drowning is often a sixty-second event and the best response time reported by professionals is eight minutes. What has been needed for years is an effective device that can deliver adequate buoyancy out to the death zone of 30-70 feet off shore and facilitate rapid recovery of the victim. Lack of performance exhibited by traditional tools often leaves would-be rescuers feeling compelled to dive in after the victim leading to additional deaths. Few are trained or conditioned to make "water entry" rescues. Traditional response agencies, such as Police, Fire and EMS groups that have lost officers are enacting mandates against "water entry" rescue attempts. A group of former rescue professionals began the Retriever Project to address this situation.
The Retriever Project pinpointed the causal factors and designed a unique rescue device named the Personal Retriever that has the potential to significantly reduce these drowning deaths worldwide. A two-part program has been developed to bring this Rescue Device to the marketplace to provide people around the world a safe and effective means of drowning intervention. Step one is the tool design phase and is almost complete. The Personal Retriever's current design will handle the event's demands in the hands of a trained professional and should enable a more proactive response program to be established. Step two is to test and evaluate a series of protocols that would lead to standard uses widely accepted by Rescue Professionals for their use as well as the general public. This is where the Navy and others are being solicited to help.
The simplicity of the Retriever's appearance belies the extent of the effort it has taken to arrive at the current generation device. Feedback from professionals throughout the rescue community exposed to the device has been critical to the evolution of our device from the crude prototype to the current generation device that has seen the project's worse critics turn into ardent supporters. During this process, a number of dual use applications where our device provides options otherwise not available, were identified. Our final hurdle remains how to improve our current generation tool from one that is well received by professionals who have little difficulty deploying the device due to their physical conditioning and training, to one more suitable for widespread use by the public.
The Retriever Project hopes that by entering into a CRADA with the Naval Air Weapons Center Point Mugu, the Personal Retriever can quickly be refined to the level necessary to be used effectively by a grandparent, a child or a pregnant mom witnessing the drowning of a loved one. To achieve this goal performance gains of 10-15% will be required by determining the optimal design of the device leading/trailing edges through analysis of the laminar flow over a rotating disc as opposed to a fixed wing; and how to best create and exploit micro vortices along the surfaces of the device.
The long-range vision is to improve and test the device and then develop mass production capability for countries around the world, countries where rescue resources are scarce to non-existent. Project financial and physical limitations have made progress to date slow. Cooperative support from the Navy will provide the expertise necessary to accelerate the development work to move the device to a commercial reality.
The improved design will keep rescue professionals safe during drowning interventions. With government support, the Personal Retriever may become the first generation of rescue devices with a level of performance suitable to provide our national policy makers the means of equipping the general population with a solution to this historic loss of life. What has kept the Search & Rescue professionals committed is the sense of reward and satisfaction that comes from knowing there are people still on the surface and breathing because of a good team effort.
To provide input or for additional information, contact the Retriever Project at 619-222-3467 or visit their website - www.life-safer.com