chamber

[the dude]

i've been told that the closest full time chamber that will treat divers is now in jacksonville. gainesville isn't available 24 hours any more?

[saxplayer1004]

call DAN and ask them, they maintain a list. It's probably a small tube in a hospital somewhere, but your best bet is to call DAN.

[rjack]

call DAN and ask them, they maintain a list. It's probably a small tube in a hospital somewhere, but your best bet is to call DAN.

DAN won't tell you unless you need one now. Chambers go down for maintenance or whatever. DAN's generic advice is to go to the nearest hospital for stabilization and evaluation to see if you even need a chamber at all. Only then worry about which chamber is capable of treating you and how to transport you there.

[ScubaSteveL]

DAN won't tell you unless you need one now. Chambers go down for maintenance or whatever. DAN's generic advice is to go to the nearest hospital for stabilization and evaluation to see if you even need a chamber at all. Only then worry about which chamber is capable of treating you and how to transport you there.

I give this a +1!! I was helping a Divemaster with an Emergency Action Plan and wanted to find the nearest chamber. DAN gave me the same response. They want divers to spend their valuable time getting to the nearest hospital for treatment first. If you drive an extra hour to get to where you think a chamber is, rather than the 10 minutes to the closest hospital, it could be the difference between walking and a wheel chair, or life and death.

Call DAN only when you need a chamber.

[Sludge]

closest

Panama City is closer than Jacksonville...


(Closer to what?)

[Superlyte27]

Depends on the hospital. If I get into a horrific accident in hospital XYZ, please drive me 15 miles to the next closest hospital.

[Sludge]

From an episode of The Simpsons:

He was taken to the nearest hospital where he was declared dead. He was then transfered to a better hospital where his condition was upgraded to alive.

[rjack]

They want divers to spend their valuable time getting to the nearest hospital for treatment first. If you drive an extra hour to get to where you think a chamber is, rather than the 10 minutes to the closest hospital, it could be the difference between walking and a wheel chair, or life and death.

When we were diving Yellowstone Lake last summer I called ahead of time because I wanted to know if the ambulance should go north or south. DAN wouldn't tell me although I did learn there was no chmaber at all in Jackson WY which pretty much solidified our "plan". If we had an issue requiring a chamber we were going to the Park service urgent care clinic and then getting airlifted to Salt Lake. DAN liked that as we got evaluated earlier. I liked it since we got down from 8,000ft and to a real medical center not just some community hospital with a monoplace wound healing chamber. Reality was, any serious DCS event we would need to partially treat in the water we'd probably die long before the air ambulance even got its engines started.

[a64pilot]

The one in PC, is that the Navy?

[Sludge]

There are a few there, and also one at Bay Medical Center.

http://www.divinglore.com/Genesis/US...ersFlorida.htm