Need for recompression chambers

[kwinter]

If you are talking in-water FFM, go on scuba boards for the Interspiro MKii. Should be able to pick one up second hand for under $500. And the Interspiro can be oxygen cleaned. Second stage regulator is built into the mask assembly, so whatever you buy WILL need rebuilding.

For $500 you can get one with Buddy Phone comms. And it won't need rebuilding since it would be coming from a certified tech. Hint, hint...........

[allen]

Although I have done 650 dives (only 75 cave) without getting bent, I suspect that advancing age will get me bent sometime. One consideration in choosing a vacation site is safety. Part of my increasing fondness for the Mayan Riviera is the presence of a multi-lock chamber in Playa del Carmen.

[tursiops]

Although I have done 650 dives (only 75 cave) without getting bent, I suspect that advancing age will get me bent sometime. One consideration in choosing a vacation site is safety. Part of my increasing fondness for the Mayan Riviera is the presence of a multi-lock chamber in Playa del Carmen.

One of the reasons I like Bonaire.

[MORGAN]

Little islands like Bonaire and Roatan have chambers readily available for treating divers, but Florida, with over 19,000,000 people and a whole pile of hospitals including several world class tertiary centers, doesn't???!!!

[Greenwood_60]

Unintended consequences of over-regulation.

[gasdiver]

Unintended consequences of over-regulation.

And lack of tort reform...

[Cleavitt]

Unintended consequences of over-regulation.

And lack of tort reform...

Lack of tort reform may play some role, but not any more than any other procedure performed by hospitals. Surgery has much more risk for lawsuit than running a chamber, but I am not aware of any major hospital that doesn't have a surgery department. Legal fees, payouts, and related insurance only add up to a few percent of US health care costs anyway so while tort reform is probably needed it's not going to make or break the system.

Over regulation can't be the issue either. Bonaire is part of the Netherlands. The health care system in the Netherlands is know for being among the best in the world based on stats like death from preventable diseases and infant mortality rate. Their health care system would be considered socialized medicine by US standards so clearly they aren't less regulated than we are. Roatan is part of Honduras which also has a form of socialized medicine. However, Honduras is a very poor country with very little wealth to work with so their system only provides very basic care (still enough to afford a chamber though). The point is that the government has more control of their health system, not less.

The problem we face in the US is that our health care system is a for profit system. Our insurance companies, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies all operate as businesses. Any good businessman knows that a business can't provide products/services that don't generate profit. Providing emergency chamber services is not only not profitable, it's creating a big loss in most cases. Bonaire and Roatan have emergency chamber services because it is needed. US hospitals don't because it's not a money maker. Different priorities.

Just to be clear, I'm not trying to start a debate about the advantages or disadvantages of the US health care system compared to other nations. However, I do believe that the motivations of hospitals need to be clearly understood if we are going make any attempt to help the issue of disappearing chamber services.

[gasdiver]

Cleavitt, I won't disagree with any of your points, but were it not for liability issues, it might be possible for our community to stand up a chamber for emergency use. I think FW said there was a shop who considered the notion, once upon a time. Running a chamber is not rocket science. Heck, I treated more than one diver during the few years I worked offshore and I was just a high school grad with 5 months of commercial diver training. I know there are a lot of other issues around a community based recompression chamber, like money, but no one in their right mind would even consider it today because of the liability.

[Greenwood_60]

What is you're not considering, Cleavitt, is why the cost of "staffing" a chamber is so expensive. You're also making the fallacious argument that you can compare the quantity of regulation to the quality of regulation. Both systems are over regulated, and you can pick out data points to make either look good.

[Sludge]

I would also point out that in Bonaire and Roatan, divers' dollars are a huge percentage of revenues as compared to Florida.