Teenager with DCS, mother in denial, treatment delayed

[BRT]

Open a steam valve sometime and have the steam condense while the valve is on the backseat and you’ll understand the 1/4 turn back rule. It definitely came from the Navy, as a favorite of Machinists Mates and Boiler Technicians.

It has no place in scuba. Regardless, I turn every valve back 1/4 turn. Hose bib, scuba valve, LOX valves, etc.

I quit doing that long ago. This year in Mexico I had one lock on. It was really hard to turn off at the end of the dive.

 

[Belzelbub]

But it's hard to shake the idea that once someone can't even walk, there's then a delay in getting help.

Yeah, this is the reason I can’t get my head around the actions. I can understand that denial can lead to delay in treatment early on. However at the point where he can’t walk, I would expect that the Mama Bear instinct would kick in and override the denial impulse. The actions up to that point are understandable, even though they may be a bit unorthodox. From that point on, the actions as presented just seem absurd.

 

[Kay Dee]

I feel like if I were to ever get the bends, I’d feel like an absolute failure of a diver. Because “I know the risk factors and how to avoid getting them, yet got them anyway”. Which is obviously wrong, but…people make it sound like if you get bent, it’s because you were a dumb***.

I think the key sentence in @tursiops post above is "Decompression sickness is an integral part of diving; it cannot be completely avoided, only made acceptably improbable."

At the recreational diver level it might not be quite an 'occupational hazard' but the more you dive, even if you do nothing "wrong", you still might just get bent.

It is a shame that it - getting bent - is still seen in some (too many) circles as something to criticise, or be ashamed of.

 

[Kay Dee]

Yeah, this is the reason I can’t get my head around the actions. I can understand that denial can lead to delay in treatment early on. However at the point where he can’t walk, I would expect that the Mama Bear instinct would kick in and override the denial impulse. The actions up to that point are understandable, even though they may be a bit unorthodox. From that point on, the actions as presented just seem absurd.

Well...........there were the tacos to make after all!

 

[Eric802]

Diving is an inherently dangerous activity. That’s just the nature of the beast. We do what we can to mitigate risk but it can never be completely removed. Unfortunately, even when we do everything right, things can still go sideways. You can get bent on “safe”, conservative dives. I think the “undeserved” hit is a real thing, because we still have an imperfect understanding of every single factor that might increase the risk of DCS in any given diver.

James from the Divers Ready YouTube channel got bent. His video about it talks about the denial and everything.

 

[scubadada]

Undeserved = unexpected

 

[Celt]

People should add the extra years and inches to their waist line when calculating deco. Definitely not the same calculations they used 20 years ago. They should be a weighing scales on every boat and not just for fish.

 

[tursiops]

People should add the extra years and inches to their waist line when calculating deco. Definitely not the same calculations they used 20 years ago. They should be a weighing scales on every boat and not just for fish.

And how would you use this information?

 

[Celt]

And how would you use this information?

Add more deco time, that's the problem with computers, they don't know who their dealing with.

 

[scubadada]

And how would you use this information?

I have become more conservative as I've grown older, I've had a Teric since May 2019. My highest surfacing GF since then has been 80. I dive my computer at 80/95. About 5% of my dives are light deco.