Mike's DCS And Some Lessons Learned

[Wrench Diver]

Mike, can you remember anything else regarding the pre-dive preparations? Did you take any cold or allergy medicine the previous night? How much caffeine did you have before diving? Are you a coffee drinker? I wonder if the cramped conditions after the dive had any impact?

 

[Drin]

Mike, can you remember anything else regarding the pre-dive preparations? Did you take any cold or allergy medicine the previous night? How much caffeine did you have before diving? Are you a coffee drinker? I wonder if the cramped conditions after the dive had any impact?

Wrench: the Mike posting is NOT the Mike who got bent, but one of the people who was along on the trip.

-Adrian

 

[Wrench Diver]

"Mike and his wife Linda will visit here to read your thoughts and answer any questions you may have."

 

[Drin]

"Mike and his wife Linda will visit here to read your thoughts and answer any questions you may have."

Then you might do better specifying WHICH Mike you're asking since the OP is also named Mike.

-Adrian

 

[DavidFL]

Thanks, Mike (Boswell) for posting the comparison of Air with Nitrox and the P2 setting. I'm 65; in good shape; have been diving 45 years...seems like a very similar match to the Mike of the DCS incident. I have been diving with two Suunto computers set to the P2 setting for awhile; I went to the P1 setting after having my hip pinned back together after a mountain bike accident, and I went to the P2 setting when I hit 65 just to dive more conservative profiles. Still; way back in my earliest days of diving and re-reading the U.S. Navy Diving Manual (1970 edition), the information has always been there: that sometimes DCS hits with no easily discernible explanation. I think I have been feeling relatively smug that if some kind of "undeserved" hit happened it would surely be "minor". Clearly I need to rethink that smugness. Thanks for the excellent post and thread.

 

[ArcticDiver]

I have lost count of the number of examples of poor maintenance and broken equipment I've seen at dive ops. All dive ops like to talk about their facilities and capabilities, but, particularly when profits are down, many are tempted to cut costs on things like maintenance.

I also think we divers feel, when we are showing cert cards and reading and signing releases, that we are the ones who must carry the burden of proof in regards to safe diving. But Mike's incident has taught me that safety is a two-way street, and that we divers have our own "due diligence" responsibilities to perform.

Considering costs in time and money due diligence maybe should start well before leaving home?

Once a person is dock side it probably would take an unusual person to walk away.

 

[Mike Boswell]

Considering costs in time and money due diligence maybe should start well before leaving home?

Once a person is dock side it probably would take an unusual person to walk away.

I agree. And while we would have been able to ask about and verify the emergency O2 supplies, there are many other things we could not have anticipated.


Mike has not yet been able to post here but he sent me an email and asked me to post it for him:

Regarding my dive profile, the staff at the chamber reviewed the data on my computer and found no problems with our dive. Also, to get to the chamber in Belize would have required a boat ride across Chetumal Bay. That day the wind was blowing up 6 foot plus waves in the bay which cancelled the regular ferry service.

My main goal for this posting was to find out from other who had similar experiences, both as victim or care giver. I wonder if you could add such a request to our posting?

 

[ajduplessis]

As a new diver I like to read these posts to try and help avoid problems, but reading this post over again has kind of made me nervous now.
What are the statistics on the likelihood of sustaining an undeserved hit?

There is no such thing as an undeserved hit IMO.

Just because your dive profile is correct, does not mean you are safe. Age, physical health, hydration, immune systems, PFO/shunts, bruising of muscle/skin/ligaments/bones, medication, flu, drugs/alcohol, bumpy boat ride/bad posture, body fat, sleep, ambient temp, acclimatisation to name just a few can impact the outcome of a DCS hit, even within safe dive parameters.

Stay at ground level if you want to remove DCS, don't go up or down.

 

[Kevrumbo]

There is no such thing as an undeserved hit IMO.

Just because your dive profile is correct, does not mean you are safe. Age, physical health, hydration, immune systems, PFO/shunts, bruising of muscle/skin/ligaments/bones, medication, flu, drugs/alcohol, bumpy boat ride/bad posture, body fat, sleep, ambient temp, acclimatisation to name just a few can impact the outcome of a DCS hit, even within safe dive parameters.

Stay at ground level if you want to remove DCS, don't go up or down.

I hate that descriptor "undeserved". --just call it DCS arising from an obscure or unknown cause. (The medical terminology & descriptive diagnosis would be something like "Rule Out Idiopathic Decompression Sickness within normal recreational diving practices").

 

[Mike Boswell]

When we were diving the wrecks in Chuuk last year, our DM (Cindy) explained to us that we would be doing regular decompression stops on every dive - 3 minutes at 30 feet and 10 minutes at 15 feet, as an added safety precaution, even though our dives were within NDLs. I remember thinking this was being overly cautious: Boy, was I wrong!

For an interesting read about diving in exotic locations, see Alert Diver | Bent in Chuuk