My Experience with DCS

[Jax]

Pulmonary. edema is the right side of the heart pumping more blood into the lungs than the left side is pumping out thus they get edematous. You treat it with lasix to get rid of fluid i.e. dehydrate you. Immersion pulmonary edema is not common enough to be studied.Start a poll here if we have enough people who have experienced it and ask them if they drank water on purpose to offset their chance of dcs before their episode of IPE.

There are a great many threads and discussions on IPE on SB: http://www.scubaboard.com/community/...ng-medicine.4/

The current move - according to Lynne Flaherty last year - is that medicine is looking into it as it may be more common that initially thought. There are several studies on-going. Several diving researchers are involved in the threads cited.

[Peter Buzzacott]

...So it seems that one is well advised to treat all Fl diving as "dives in remote areas" and at least have some additional Oxygen supply handy for a potential lengthy transport to a chamber..

That would appear prudent. I always figured I'd just use my 40 cu deco tank if I needed oxygen, but there was a high profile case last year after a dive at Ginnie where the diver could not tolerate a demand valve. I'm sure others on here know of similar cases. So, for Christmas I bought myself the new DAN oxygen backpack, with a second Jumbo D cylinder in it. It is specifically designed to hold two Jumbo-Ds. I've been showing it around every time I come south to cave country, it is a thing of beauty. It sits behind my drivers seat with a non-rebreather mask ready to go. At 12 L/min it "should" cover me from Ginnie to Valdosta, 1 hour and 20 minutes. I'll be around next weekend, PM me if anyone wants a look at my shiney new O2 kit.

A talk on the high profile case can be seen here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0t8djdervQw He describes needing the non-rebreather mask at 24 minutes, in 25th minute he describes his epic journey to get recompressed.

Conflict of Interest Statement: I am currently employed by DAN (in research though, not in sales).

[Nitrogenius]

Conflict of Interest Statement: I am currently employed by DAN (in research though, not in sales).

Thanks for mentioning the kit, certainly a great thing to have..
But shouldn`t DAN actually get on this situation in Florida and challenge those hospitals actually having O2 chambers but not making them available to divers??

[FW]

...But shouldn't DAN actually get on this situation in Florida and challenge those hospitals actually having O2 chambers but not making them available to divers??

I agree.

[Jax]

Thanks for mentioning the kit, certainly a great thing to have..
But shouldn`t DAN actually get on this situation in Florida and challenge those hospitals actually having O2 chambers but not making them available to divers??

I don't not believe that is in DAN's charter. However, it is appropriate to write to your State rep about the issue, because it is life threatening.

[Peter Buzzacott]

Well, let's be clear about this, I'm only on here as an individual member of the cave diving community, not as a spokesman for DAN. If you want to know what DAN have been doing to resolve this situation, possibly for some years, (and for similar situations elsewhere in the US, Caribbean, and South Pacific), then please call DAN and ask, or fill-in the form here: https://www.diversalertnetwork.org/?a=email You might ask the UHMS too, here: https://www.uhms.org/contact-us.html

Please understand, whether I agree with you or not it's not my place to answer forum questions on behalf of DAN - I posted as a cave diver saying I recently bought a fabulous new oxygen kit in case I get bent in cave country. I still think this might be of interest to anyone in our community who thinks a 40 cu of oxygen and a deco reg will cut it if they get bent at Ginnie, when it's 80 minutes to the nearest chamber.

It was fair for me to mention that conflict of interest when extolling the virtues of a product DAN sell because I am employed by them (but not in sales), otherwise I would not have mentioned DAN at all.

[tjbald11]

Peter,

good idea on contacting UHMS...I didn't think about them.

Do people think this issue could be somehow addressed by NSS-CDS? And by addressed I mean an official letter sent with the NSS-CDS letterhead to some state reps explaining why it's important. I know a part of the mission of NSS-CDS includes safety and although it's more about in water safety(?)...could proper medical treatment fall into that safety part of its mission? Just a thought...I don't personally know enough about NSS-CDS so forgive me if that idea is ridiculous. I would have also suggested NACD send an official letter on behalf of their members but.......maybe put that idea on hold for a little.

I think members of the community writing letters to state represent is also a good idea. And maybe some of the private places like Ginnie asking representatives for a chamber so they can make sure their visitors receive the best care possible.

I don't think it is an issue one group should tackle, but if you have numerous organizations in addition to a lot of the community members making the issue known and voicing our concern then who knows maybe we could get a chamber a lot closer...

[victorzamora]

This is something that's been on my wishlist for a while now: RescuEAN. Anybody have one?

[tstormdiver]

Just a question about that RescuEAN,.... Would EAN (say 32%) be of that much help to a diver suffering from DCS? I can see 100% O2,... but 32%? I guess it would fall in the "doing something is better than doing nothing" category. One thing about my incident, is I had an inkling of what was going on, but not absolutely sure & probably some denial also in the mix, so I did not go on Oxygen. Probably should have, since I had some in my O2 bailout & rebreather O2 bottles with me... Not exactly the smartest thing.

[kwinter]

The connection is dehydration. The doctor thinks because of diabetes, she was dehydrated. We have known for a long time that dehydration contributes to DCS.

Correction: We have THOUGHT for a long time that dehydration contributes to DCS. The evidence is less than compelling, and more recent studies dispute the old way of thinking. It is probably more important to hydrate during decompression than before the dive.