In the late 1960s, the University of Southern California established the USC Catalina Marine Science Center (CMSC, now called the USC Philip K. Wrigley Marine Science Center) in the valley off of Big Fisherman Cove on Catalina Island. Shortly after the construction of the lab, North American Rockwell and the US Navy utilized it as a base for their testing of the
submersible Beaver IV. The hanger they built to house and service the submersible would later become the home of the
USC Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber.
The focus of the USC CMSC was research in the ocean environment. Since scuba was a primary research tool, studies of diving and decompression physiology found a natural home at the lab. In 1973, during an open ocean diving physiology study, one of the test subjects developed decompression sickness. At that time, the only hyperbaric chambers in Southern California were commercial and military chambers. Fortunately for the bent diver,
Howard Hughes’s Glomar Explorer was performing sea trials around Catalina Island, and the diving barge supporting the Explorer had a hyperbaric chamber. Arrangements were made and the diver was treated.
This accident highlighted the need to have a hyperbaric chamber at CMSC to support its divers.
Dr. Andrew (Andy) Pilmanis, an assistant professor of physiology who was stationed at the CMSC, and
Dr. John P. "Pat" Meehan Jr.(Chairman of the Physiology Dept at the USC School of Medicine) began the search for a chamber to meet the needs of the lab. Dr. Meehan called Dr. Charles Barrons, flight surgeon for Lockheed's Skunk Works Rye Canyon facility to see if they would be interested in donating the chamber to USC (coincidentally, Lockheed's Skunk Works were involved with development of the Glomar Explorer). The Chamber had been used to support test pilots (in case they developed altitude decompression sickness) during trials of their SST and SR-71 prototypes. Since these projects were complete, Lockheed agreed to donate the Chamber to USC. Bechtel Corporation donated the time and people to move it to San Pedro, Western Offshore Drilling Corporation (a subsidiary of Fluor Corporation) made some modifications to it, and then Pacific Tow & Salvage donated tug, crane, and barge services to transport it to CMSC. The Chamber was lifted from the barge and lowered onto the submersible marine railway. It was then winched up the railway into the hanger and then maneuvered, by hand, into the location it occupies today. Funding for the installation of the Chamber in its new home was provided by the USC Oceanographic Associates.
Dr. Pilmanis was appointed the first director of the Chamber. He, along with soon to be
Dr. Bruce Bassett (an Air Force officer working on his Ph.D. at the lab who had set up the USAF hyperbaric chamber training procedures), worked on the installation of the Chamber. Using procedures adapted from the USAF they trained of the first Crew of the Chamber from members of the CMSC staff and LA County Lifeguards stationed on Catalina. The Chamber’s first recorded occupied dive in its new home was made on July 13, 1974.
Originally, the Chamber was to be used for hyperbaric research and to support CMSC’s research divers. However, it soon became clear that other divers needed support as well. In the early 1970s there were years where there were over 20 diving fatalities around Catalina Island and Los Angeles County. These fatalities illustrated the need for rapid response to diving accidents.
As a result, Los Angeles County Supervisor James A. Hayes of Long Beach proposed an arrangement between USC and LA County where the County agreed to provide funding for operation of the Chamber 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, as well as medical support and direction for the treatment of divers from LA County Medical Center. With the assistance of Dr. Bassett and
Dr. Jefferson Davis from the USAF Hyperbaric Center at Brooks Airforce Base, Dr. Richard Scott from the LAC+USC Department of Emergency Medicine trained physicians in hyperbaric medicine. These physicians would be transported to the island by the LA County Sheriff department. During the same time period the Los Angeles County (“Baywatch”) Lifeguards stationed in Avalon and Two Harbors received training to bring them up from EMTs to Paramedics to improved the emergency medical care of divers being transported to the Chamber and others who needed care on the island. The Chamber was formally dedicated in early October 1974 and did not need to wait long for its first patient, a recreational diver, who arrived for treatment on October 14. When it opened, the USC Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber was the only non-military/non-commercial diving chamber in the Southern California area and patients were brought in from as far south as Baja and North to Montery (
Arcadia Tribune article on the dedication of the Chamber). As it approaches 40 years of operation, the Chamber has received over 1,000 for evaluation. Of these over 600 required treatment. Since some required multiple treatments these 600+ divers have received over 900 treatments.
Over the years information from the diving accidents treated at the Chamber have led to recommendations for the entire recreational diving community. In the 1970s and 1980s, it was noted that many cases of air embolism treated at the Chamber were caused by free-ascent training in basic classes. Recommendations were made to modify free-ascent training and occurrences of these cases were reduced. A recent review of causes of panic in divers treated at the Chamber has produced recommendations on how to reduce a diver’s potential for panic. Based upon the cases of two unconscious divers who were brought to the Chamber, recommendations were made to scuba training agencies to prohibit instructors from using closed or semiclosed circuit rebreathers while training basic open circuit scuba divers.
Over the years, the Chamber has been used for hyperbaric and decompression research. For one study Dr. Pilmanis performed Doppler monitoring on divers who dove to the U.S. Navy no-decompression limits with and without un-required stops at 10 and 20 feet. He noted that the amount of bubbling dropped dramatically when short (2-5 minute) stops were made at 10 and 20 feet. This data, when presented at the
American Academy of Underwater Sciences "Biomechanics of Safe Ascents Workshop" led to recommendations that have evolved into the 15-foot safety stop that every diver now knows. In 1983 the Chamber was used by Orca Industries to perform
human subject tests on one of the first commercially viable dive computers, the EDGE. Karl Huggins, Orca's Vice President for Research, used Doppler to monitor 12 divers through three days of three multi-level dives per day and a decompression dive on the last day in order to test for hot spots in the EDGE's decompression algorithm. Nine years later Huggins was hired to become the Director of the Chamber.
Ongoing work with dive computers, which compares their responses to set profiles, shows that on the same dive some computers may have over 10 minutes of decompression required while other have over 20 minutes of no-decompression time remaining.
No history of the Chamber would be complete without mentioning the Volunteer Crew, who are essential in making the system work. The original 1974 crew consisted of people who worked at CMSC and lived in the Two Harbors area. In 1980, Dr. Pilmanis started a training program for anyone interested in volunteering. Since then, over 400 people from around the world have been trained. Currently, about 80 active volunteers donate their time. Without them, it simply would not be possible to operate the Chamber without dramatically increasing the budget. So the next time you meet some of these exceptional individuals, be sure to thank them for their service to the diving community. . .
