Chambers recompressing diver's database

[lv2dive]

Has anyone heard anything about the chamber in Jax? Curious why people aren't getting sent there.

[DogDiver]

It is simply a matter of economics.
The chamber gets paid the same amount for a 90 minute burn or wound patient as it does for a diver doing a 5 hour Navy schedule 6 treatment.
Do the math. I ran the monoplace chambers at NFRMC for a year and that was the bottom line.


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[EGIB]

Any chance you can call and get verification? or at least provide a phone number that people can have to be able to call. I think to make this a valuable data base is to have that information. My goal is to make this a "sticky" on CDF, and it can be access during an emergency on a smart phone.

I did not call, but they do have a chamber: For more information or wound care education information, contact the Wound Care and Hyperbaric Center at (352) 341-6000

[IowaCaveDiver]

Has anyone heard anything about the chamber in Jax? Curious why people aren't getting sent there.

I took a DCS hit while spearfishing 100+ miles off shore in the Gulf of Mexico in October 2014... diving out of panama city and the hospital there would not treat divers. I was sent to Springhill, AL for treatment. 2 "dives" and 48hrs later I was headed home to Jacksonville. I tried to get an additional treatment upon my return and spent a full day sitting at a hyperbaric facility only to be turned away due to liability. I talked to DAN at the end of that day and they told me the treatment might help with healing but at that point all bubbles were gone, so I didn't bother fighting for a last treatment. The whole experience was very sobering as I always thought if you got bent minutes later DAN would have a chopper there to wisk you to a "nearby" chamber... certainly not the case. I spent 5 hours in the ER in panama city beach waiting for a hospital (any hospital) to accept me and get a transport. It made me very angry to know there is an active chamber at that same hospital but they won't treat a diver in it.... not profitable enough, too much liability and also expense having a hyperbaric Doc on call. It only took the hospital in panama city beach about an hour to realize they should have had me oxygen from the time I walked in the door. The hyperbaric Docs at Springhill were amazing and have been fighting the battle to get chambers opened to divers throughout florida as they receive almost all cases of DCS that occur in the panhandle and beyond. At the time they had recently taken a patient from the same hospital with catastrophic injuries... a free diver that embolized after holding his breath from depth and free ascending out at Vortex. he was told to go to panama city and received an even longer delay of treatment than I did. I have made a full recovery, unfortunately that young man did not and will be forever crippled by the damage caused. It does ultimately come down to $$$ as Kelly pointed out. Chambers that are willing/open to treating divers have to have a hyperbaric MD on call 24hrs a day which becomes very expensive and of course packing a larger chamber with wound care patients (who "dive" to a much shallower depth) is much more profitable than using the chamber for one DCS patient. Very frustrating and scary for the tens of thousands of divers living/visiting the state of Florida for all sorts of diving activities.
Lesson learned... know where you closest operating hyperbaric facility is and have a plan to get there in case the unexpected happens. Don't rely on any hospital or even DAN to ensure you end up where you need to go. DAN was extremely helpful to me and I am forever grateful for having an active membership since I started diving... never thought I would use it.

[lv2dive]

Sorry to be a little obtuse - but was it your understanding, then, that the chamber in Jax was NOT treating divers at that time?

I took a DCS hit while spearfishing 100+ miles off shore in the Gulf of Mexico in October 2014... diving out of panama city and the hospital there would not treat divers. I was sent to Springhill, AL for treatment. 2 "dives" and 48hrs later I was headed home to Jacksonville. I tried to get an additional treatment upon my return and spent a full day sitting at a hyperbaric facility only to be turned away due to liability. I talked to DAN at the end of that day and they told me the treatment might help with healing but at that point all bubbles were gone, so I didn't bother fighting for a last treatment. The whole experience was very sobering as I always thought if you got bent minutes later DAN would have a chopper there to wisk you to a "nearby" chamber... certainly not the case. I spent 5 hours in the ER in panama city beach waiting for a hospital (any hospital) to accept me and get a transport. It made me very angry to know there is an active chamber at that same hospital but they won't treat a diver in it.... not profitable enough, too much liability and also expense having a hyperbaric Doc on call. It only took the hospital in panama city beach about an hour to realize they should have had me oxygen from the time I walked in the door. The hyperbaric Docs at Springhill were amazing and have been fighting the battle to get chambers opened to divers throughout florida as they receive almost all cases of DCS that occur in the panhandle and beyond. At the time they had recently taken a patient from the same hospital with catastrophic injuries... a free diver that embolized after holding his breath from depth and free ascending out at Vortex. he was told to go to panama city and received an even longer delay of treatment than I did. I have made a full recovery, unfortunately that young man did not and will be forever crippled by the damage caused. It does ultimately come down to $$$ as Kelly pointed out. Chambers that are willing/open to treating divers have to have a hyperbaric MD on call 24hrs a day which becomes very expensive and of course packing a larger chamber with wound care patients (who "dive" to a much shallower depth) is much more profitable than using the chamber for one DCS patient. Very frustrating and scary for the tens of thousands of divers living/visiting the state of Florida for all sorts of diving activities.
Lesson learned... know where you closest operating hyperbaric facility is and have a plan to get there in case the unexpected happens. Don't rely on any hospital or even DAN to ensure you end up where you need to go. DAN was extremely helpful to me and I am forever grateful for having an active membership since I started diving... never thought I would use it.

[IowaCaveDiver]

DAN and the Springhill Doctors both called the chamber in JAX and confirmed they would treat me if pain returned so I felt safe returning home. I had pain the following day so I went in for treatment. They did a full workup on me, prepped me to "dive", made all sorts of calls to various people (DAN, the insurance people, springhill hospital, other chamber facilities, etc) as I was the first diver they had ever treated and apparently they were the only hyperbaric facility with chambers that could dive deep enough for my treatment. When they finally got all their questions answered the doctor on call was off duty for the day (I got there at 8am and at this time is was around 4pm) and told me he couldn't supervise my "dive" and they would have to look into on another day since he was scheduled to be off for several days. I gave up, frustrated, and went home. I ironically that doctor sent me a nice big bill a few weeks later for "treatments rendered".

[JohnnyC]

I'll pop this can o'worms since we're all lamenting the lack of available chambers......

There's an old case study out there from Pyle and Youngblood originally published in The Universal Diver, and later reprinted as "The case for in-water recompression". aquaCorps, No. 11:35-46. on in-water recompression. Considering the popularity of some of these Florida sites and the general availability of oxygen because of it, what's everyone's thoughts on carrying a dedicated FFM and a couple hundred cf of O2?

The conclusion seems to be that there have been cases where oxygen (and to a lesser extent air) IWR was quite successful in cases where a chamber ride was unavailable in a timely manner. From the paper, "We do not necessarily endorse IWR; however we see an increasing need by technical divers to become aware of the information available on this topic."

Is there a newer paper disproving their study? I haven't investigated the matter enough to come to my own conclusions. I admit I have just assumed that my DAN insurance would take care of it. That's clearly not the case and something I'll be researching.


ETA: Found It!

http://www.bishopmuseum.org/research...utz97/iwr.html

[IowaCaveDiver]

In water recompression was our first option since we were so far off shore. Upon surfacing from the dive I hadn't even gotten out of my gear and I felt sharp pains in my right shoulder and began shaking. I had cleared all deco and wasn't sure what it was but my buddy recommended getting in the water with some o2 to see if that helped. We splashed back in and went to around 40' with 85% mix and I sat for 30 minutes, then did 15 min at 20' and 15min at 10'. The pain stopped as soon as we got to depth. It had been many years since I took a tech class where in water recompression procedures were taught and honestly I couldn't' remember the specific guidelines. I got back on the boat and symptoms had subsided. I then sat out of diving for the next day and (stupidly) resumed diving the following day. After the last dive of the day the symptoms returned. The boat captain did have an oxygen tank on board but we found out he didn't have the right regulator to get the gas out of it, so it was useless to me. At this point we had exhausted our scuba oxygen supply and we were still 120 miles off shore. I decided to try in water recompression again, this time on air (only gas we had at this point) and did a similar dive profile, except this time I started at 60' and did 15 min stops every 10 feet until surfacing. Quite honestly the scariest dive of my life... out in the middle of nowhere in the gulf of Mexico, hanging on an anchor line drifting behind the boat in complete darkness. I had a back up light with me but it really made the experience much scarier as I had 360 degrees around me I couldn't' see anything and all I could think about is what predators are out at night looking for a meal. Thankfully besides dodging about a million jelly fish, it was uneventful, but unfortunately it was unsuccessful and the pain returned less than an hour after getting out of the water. We were headed in, but by the time we docked, headed to the hospital in panama city and then got the delayed departing to go to springhill medical center and subsequent treatment it had been nearly 24 hours since my symptoms had started (the second time).
Thankfully the hit was minimal and I have fully recovered and am back to my normal diving hobbies (a bit more conservative now. I learned a lot from the experience and try to share with all I can so that we can all be prepared and know what to expect when the unexpected arrives.

I think had we a dedicated bottle of high o2 mix on board solely for such a situation and if we had a laid out in water recompression plan or guidelines the outcome would have been much better. Now on our extended/multi day trips we have dedicated 02 bottles in addition to a working on board medical o2 bottle/kit only on board for emergencies.

[gschaut]

At the risk of violating rules #3 and #6, maybe it's time for the cave community to tell the ENTIRE MEDICAL COMMUNITY to take a long walk off a short pier!

Divers (and caisson workers) INVENTED chambers, the NAVY perfected the treatment table.

If the entire Medical Community says @#$-you to divers, maybe it's time for CDS to buy it's OWN chamber and staff it with volunteer chamber operators.

Can't speak to Florida, but in most states certification is NOT required for volunteers responding to an emergency where CERTIFIED medical personnel are not available. If the doctors turn us away from their chambers, we have an emergency on our hands...

Flame On!

[FW]

At the risk of violating rules #3 and #6, maybe it's time for the cave community to tell the ENTIRE MEDICAL COMMUNITY to take a long walk off a short pier!

Divers (and caisson workers) INVENTED chambers, the NAVY perfected the treatment table.

If the entire Medical Community says @#$-you to divers, maybe it's time for CDS to buy it's OWN chamber and staff it with volunteer chamber operators.

Can't speak to Florida, but in most states certification is NOT required for volunteers responding to an emergency where CERTIFIED medical personnel are not available. If the doctors turn us away from their chambers, we have an emergency on our hands...

Flame On!

No flame, but "WE", ie the cave diving community, chipped in to buy a chamber in north Florida. Sadly the owner of the diveshop that was collecting the money skipped town owing a lot of divers, not to mention gear manufactures, a lot of money.