C & C Professional Services, LLC
Operational Risk Management....What If?
Charles J. Gbur, MD, FACC, FSCAI, DMO
This page is a work in progress. I have always been interested in "survival". Growing up, I remember putting together survival kits in small metal band-aid boxes. My interest continued as I became involved in scouting. Working to become an Eagle Scout, I learned many new skills, but never really had the opportunity to prove my skills. Later, in college, a friend and I decided to go camping in the winter with no food or matches. The weather was terrible, but we managed to start a fire. We did bring rifles and planned to either hunt, trap or fish for our meals. We went the entire 4 days without seeing as much as a tweety bird. We finally found some frozen wild onions in the ground and managed to make some soup. At the end of the trip we stopped by a local McDonalds and ordered several combo meals each. We did survive though!
Over the years my interest in wilderness survival and wilderness medicine expanded. The military had a big impact on my thought process. It exposed me to several different environments and challenges and also furthered my survival education. September 11th however was a major turning point in my "survival" interest. I am sure it had similar effects on many people. The post 9-11 education has been extensive. I have also been amazed at the amount of misinformation that has become common knowledge since 9-11. The urban legends spread like wild fire thanks to media such as the internet and the news media in my opinion has been less than helpful. There are thousands of sites on the web willing to sell you a survival kit, unfortunately many are junk. Many victims had everything they needed to survive but didn't and there are numerous reports of people surviving truly against all odds with little or no resources. It takes more than a "kit" to be a survivor.
Over the last several years I have become very active in diving and diving medicine. Diving is not a safe sport, in fact very few activities worth doing can be considered safe. But risk can be managed. This "risk Management" actually attracted me to technical diving. Although most people consider technical diving as being "dangerous" or "riskier", I see it quite the opposite. Technical diving is much more cerebral. There are multiple redundant systems and risk management is taken much more seriously. So diving has further spurred my interest in "survival". I have reviewed numerous diving accident reports to determine why they occurred, what could have been done to prevent them, and why some people survive and others don't. I have been reviewing other accidents as well. In almost all cases it's the little things that go wrong. We all have been lost driving in a car, but if it's on a desolate road, cold and the car gets stuck, tragic results can happen. If you're hiking and the weather unexpectedly turns ugly, tragedy can result. Recently, two divers died in Gilboa Quarry in Northwest Ohio. What went wrong?
"Incidents" can't always be prevented, but training, education, and being prepared can make you a survivor. In retrospect, maybe the reason that I have never truly tested my survival skills is that I have been able to avoid the cascading domino effect of the little things that go wrong and lead to large scale disasters. In the military we use the term "Operational Risk Management" or ORM. Mental preparation is important, it may be the most important element related to who survives. Visualizing problems before they occur certainly is better that never having thought about it when it occurs. The "What if" game... Having the right gear or kit may just make it easier.
I could go on and on. I could write a book on this, in fact, I am seriously considering it. In the mean time, I will add bits and pieces to this site in hopes that it will help someone be a survivor. I would like to dedicate this site to my friend and neighbor Lydia who inspired me to finally start to write down my thoughts and experiences. To Lydia's credit, she realizes that there are risk that we face everyday, from the likely such as severe weather and power outages to the remote such as a terrorist attack on Toledo, Ohio (not really a high value target, but who knows?). Unfortunately, Lydia's disaster management plan is fairly simple...to come to my house. And with that motivation in mind, this page was born...
Emergency Preparedness
Diving Safety and Risk Management