Advanced Maritime EMS?

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Kev, as noted by the OP and realized early on by most, the OP is from Mass. so...

Francesea, I guess the question is what you want to achieve as a goal and where you want to spend your free time. If you want to be a diver with solid F/A skills I stand by suggestions that those can best be addressed through a comprehensive mainstream course that offers lots of practice which is maintained on a regular interval. If you want a whole other hobby/vocation and plan to dedicate a lot of time to something unrelated to actually diving then volunteering to become a chamber assistant via the course described by Kev may be in line with that. But what he is suggesting is something completely out of the realm of what most people would apply, most of the time, while actually recreational diving. Someone who was intellectually honest would at least tell you that, which is all I'm trying to do.

But, I've said my piece. I've argued enough with Kev to know it's just an ego fest competition which I'm not interested in. My comments were tailored to what I perceived as your situation in your area. Either way good luck as any interest in F/A is better than none.

Cheers.
 
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As noted by the OP and realized early on by most, the OP is from Mass. so...
So the OP can look into flying out for training courses & educational programs leading to a Volunteer Chamber Crew Position that -if not eligible as a recurring tax write-off- can at least be a great dive vacation to the kelp forests of SoCal.

How the Chamber is Funded > USC Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber > USC Dana and David
Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences


Location > USC Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber > USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
. . .
Kevrumbo, the volunteer program you describe would be exactly what my daughter and I would be interested in, but in Mass area. Plus both my kids are engineering majors, and developing new types of safety and rescue products would be an interesting goal, so learning these skills and equipment for Diver Medic Training would be a step in that direction. Thank you!

So far this link shows a number of places that train, but are all far from me
Come on out and visit & dive Catalina Island, and hopefully join our Chamber Crew!

". . .Although most are from Southern California, our volunteers have come from all around the United States and several countries. Most of them are active recreational, scientific, military, or commercial divers; however, their backgrounds and livelihoods are extremely diverse. What they do share though, is an active interest in the care of divers who find themselves in trouble. . ."

Example of a Chamber Orientation Dive:
Chamber Orientation Dives > USC Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber > USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

Educational Programs > USC Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber > USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences

(As DaleC says above, I'm just being intellectually honest in promoting support for this great & worthy non-profit institution/facility that's been reliably serving the SoCal Diving Community since 1974, solely for the treatment of dive accident casualties.)
 
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DaleC, yes, I am interested in going further with training since I have a Bio degree and have worked in hospitals and in research, so this training is the meeting of my two interests. Plus my kids interest in biomedical engineering also finds some goals in helping improving technology. There appear to be developing a portable, recompression chamber, and I can see a future of having these on boats with far more widespread training as well. This is a fast paced technology field! By the way, I googled the recompression chamber operations for Mass, got a list of hospitals that provide treatment for wound and burn by hyperbaric chamber, but no training opportunities, so still looking.
 
It's an interesting field.

The idea for portable chambers has been around for many many years with lots of designs being developed in the 60's. You can google vintage designs to see some. Many of them did actually work but there was a problem with them being mainly one person vessels and thus, no treatment by an attendant being available.

I think the proliferation of dedicated chambers and the litigious nature of the US have made portable chambers not as popular as they once were. You need to have someone who can operate one, and someone to proscribe the therapy. Most people just don't dive in remote enough settings to justify the cost/qualification/authorization required. If someone has medical issues you can't just pop the door open to help so, forgetting the patient for a moment, just taking a second healthy person down in a portable chamber is a big risk to incur on a boat (and why dedicated chamber operation is so safety intensive). Equally, throwing a patient in one without an attendant is risky as well. Risk/risk. Who on the boat will assume those liabilities when current regulations say they don't have to?

Sort of like handing out old school defibrillators to laymen before the advances in AED technology became common place. Sure they could save people in the right hands but back then no one would sign off on making them available to the gen. public.

But now they do so who knows.

.
 
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. . .I'm not trying to be argumentative but there is nothing in a "marine environment" medical course that is more "helpful" than a good land based course gives you, from a first responder perspective. A dive oriented F/A course will not give you more/better info than say, a wilderness F/A course, which is specifically designed to deal with delayed transit concerns. Knowing what to expect from a chamber facility is interesting but no one is going to let an outsider operate a chamber or take the ride with a patient. Jelly fish stings are unique, as are shark bites, but they both follow the basic principles of anaphylixis and avulsion treatment. Yes the marine environment is different than land but so is treating someone stuck in a tree, down a well or under a bus.

It is far better to be proficient in delivering the core interventions comprehensive mainstream courses teach you: CPR/AED, O2 therapy, shock mitigation and the ABCD's of primary care. I would rather someone take a good F/A - CPR course 5 times and get it right than taking 5 different courses. If you have those skills down you simply flex them for whatever environment you are in, but the interventions are still the same. There is no unique "marine" injury that lies outside that. . ..
. . .
Francesea, I guess the question is what you want to achieve as a goal and where you want to spend your free time. If you want to be a diver with solid F/A skills I stand by suggestions that those can best be addressed through a comprehensive mainstream course that offers lots of practice which is maintained on a regular interval. If you want a whole other hobby/vocation and plan to dedicate a lot of time to something unrelated to actually diving then volunteering to become a chamber assistant via the course described by Kev may be in line with that. But what he is suggesting is something completely out of the realm of what most people would apply, most of the time, while actually recreational diving. Someone who was intellectually honest would at least tell you that, which is all I'm trying to do.

But, I've said my piece. I've argued enough with Kev to know it's just an ego fest competition which I'm not interested in. My comments were tailored to what I perceived as your situation in your area. Either way good luck as any interest in F/A is better than none.

Cheers.
DaleC, if the motivation is to get real world clinical practice treating battlefield trauma, then you would to go to a Field Hospital in Afghanistan (or to an inner city Trauma Center in Chicago or South Central Los Angeles for that matter).

Similarly to get real world practice for dive accidents, go to a place where there are a lot of divers (especially the potential diver accident & triage conditions on the Opening Night of SoCal Lobster Season), get the additional training offered beyond Rescue Diver and consider becoming part of the emergency chain of care as Volunteer Chamber Operations Crew, or perhaps a frontline para-professional first responder on a diveboat as a certified Divemaster.

But if all you want is basic competency and nothing applicably more challenging, then there's nothing wrong with you DaleC, justifying only a re-cert EFR (or Red Cross CPR/First Aid) & refresher Rescue classes for yourself as needed. . .
Or, a boutique water cooler course. Gotcha
Like I said, not a "boutique course". . .but the best most unique and comprehensive non-professional course beyond Rescue Diver for the clinical treatment of dive accidents, with the additional training and hands-on operation of a full size multiplace Recompression Chamber.
DaleC, yes, I am interested in going further with training since I have a Bio degree and have worked in hospitals and in research, so this training is the meeting of my two interests. Plus my kids interest in biomedical engineering also finds some goals in helping improving technology. There appear to be developing a portable, recompression chamber, and I can see a future of having these on boats with far more widespread training as well. This is a fast paced technology field! By the way, I googled the recompression chamber operations for Mass, got a list of hospitals that provide treatment for wound and burn by hyperbaric chamber, but no training opportunities, so still looking.
This portable Recompression Chamber (aka Hyperbaric Stretcher) was field tested with simulated delivery of a patient to the Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber:

However, any well prepared expedition liveaboard charter to a remote dive site location should have a permanent deck mounted Recompression Chamber onboard capable of simultaneously treating at least two patients along with a Tender inside and a Hyperbaric Physician Supervising the treatment:
Diving from the MV Windward | Indies Trader
 
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Kevrumbo, those training in so cal are a great deal, including room and board, plus I have relatives in the area. I am going to talk to kids about summer trip. Thank you!
 
Wow, now we're treating battle field trauma and shipping off to Afghanistan... You are sounding cooler by the moment.

But if all you want is basic competency and nothing applicably more challenging, then there's nothing wrong with you DaleC, justifying only a re-cert EFR (or Red Cross CPR/First Aid) & refresher Rescue classes for yourself as needed. . .

Yeah, basic competency in F/A skills - what a concept. For a diver with < 100 dives, rescue diver and no EMT training sounds like a plan eh? Imagine if every non professional diver had basic competency first before chasing the big splashy stuff... But oh yeah, that sounds dull too me too.

For the record, I would suggest Wilderness F/A with a good instructor as a good next step. The EFR portion of rescue diver seemed lackluster IMO. After that perhaps EMT-F or A. The WFA course is designed to treat injuries where delay in transport is expected. I also suggest aligning with a facility or org. that allows repeated training with a CPR doll, preferably one with a ventilation/compression readout.

CPR is not hard but one needs to spend a lot of time honing it so the actions become effective and somewhat natural. I was fortunate to train as an EMT-A in a University setting where we could spend hours whenever we wanted on that skill. Some did, some didn't. I was one of the ones that did and don't regret it.

I have also taken two different chamber day courses learning how they operate and going for a ride. Having learned how a chamber works is interesting in knowing what to expect downstream but won't help the dying diver on the deck of a dive boat. There it's boring old F/A. So, until one has that aspect fully covered...

Call me dull that way. I care about the basics that actually matter instead of trying to get a contact high off of what the cool kids are doing.
 
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DaleC, why are you raining on other people's interests? There has to be some other threads you can post positive contributions to.
 
I'm talking to Kev. I've already said what you do is fine and I wished you well.

You see it as negative but I see throwing some one off chamber course out there as the next logical step in FA training to be just him boasting about what he does. There's a history there. And, if you go back to the original post I think what I am suggesting is in line with that ie: what happens after rescue diver. If you think it is negative to argue that gaining basic F/A competency before taking advanced and mostly non applicable course material is a negative I don't know what to say. I can only suggest that I have been on scene at many accidents where people stand around because they don't know what to do or are too unsure of themselves to not voice my opinion in that regard.

If all a person has taken is the EFR portion of rescue they are probably not there yet as far as solidifying those core skills. Do you jump ahead and ignore that, or build a solid base that may be of some use, down the road, whether on a boat deck or as a chamber attendant.
 
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