Decompression Accident in North Sulawesi

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(Warning: Long Post!) I had a similar situation happen to me with regards to having an unexpected hit of skin bends. We flew to the Philippines for a 2+ week trip. The first 8 nights were to be spent in Dauin/Dumaguete and then we were set to fly to Anilao for the second week of diving.

Upon our arrival into Manila, we just caught the tail-end of Supertyphoon Nina, which caused many cancellations, including our connecting flight to Dumaguete. When we tried to rebook on the next flight, we were told that they couldn’t get us out for 4 days, so we ended up taking the loss on that ticket and re-booked on another carrier into Cebu, which meant we had to stay the “night” in Manila, get up at 3am to catch that flight and then take a 6 hour shuttle ride down to the south end of the island where we finally caught a ferry to Dumaguete and then another shuttle to our resort.

Admittedly, we were probably tired and a bit dehydrated upon our arrival to the resort. We arrived just before lunch, so they told us to get something to eat and they would be able to get us out on two afternoon dives. We were thrilled.

We ate lunch, and I made it a point to load up on water and liquids. At this point, we were feeling great. About an hour and a half later, we made two dives. Both were approx. 45 – 50 minutes in length, our max depth was 65ft and 70ft, though we were only down there for a short amount of time and then proceeded to play in the “shallows” for the majority of the dives. There were no uncontrolled ascents and we completed an extended safety stop on both, as they couldn’t get us our requested Nitrox until the following day. I was actually slightly annoyed at the short(er) length of the dives…we didn’t fly half way around the world for 45 minutes dives, afterall!

We returned to the resort and after the dives, I waited to take a long hot shower after our long day of travel due as I’ve heard this can increase the risk of a DCS hit. We went to the bar and I was just sipping a beer and a glass of water while my bf chatted up some fellow divers. It was about an hour to an hour and a half after getting out of the water. I suddenly started to feel “fuzzy” and I suddenly realized I was scratching heavily at my lower back. I quietly went to our bungalow and proceeded to pull up the back of my shirt to see what was causing the itchiness/discomfort. What I saw initially caught me off guard….deep red and blue marbling and the appearance of bruising on my lower back, buttocks and thighs. I knew immediately what it was and went directly to the resort manager to have her confirm my suspicions.

They put me on 02 and I contacted DAN. DAN recommended that I go to the ER to be checked for neurological symptoms and then I would report back what happened. At this point, I was feeling nauseous and was vomiting, so they loaded me up and we went to the hospital. After going through the explanation to the dr., they refused to believe it was DCS and proceeded to give me Benadryl, a steroid shot and hooked me up to IV fluids. I KNEW I was not having an allergic reaction, but they refused to consider DCS. I was annoyed at this point and it was midnight, so I chose to leave, get some rest and contact DAN again in the morning.

The next day, DAN connected me with the chamber doctor in Cebu. I sent him pictures and spoke to him and he recommended that I make the trip back to Cebu for treatment, just to be safe. I did go and underwent two chamber treatments before they released me. I returned to the resort the evening of December 30. Of course, the resort wasn’t going to allow me to dive, so I sat out the next week.

During my free time, I scoured the internet to see if there was any evidence or guidelines that would indicate it might be ok for me to dive during the second half of our trip. Not going to lie, I was searching for ANY information that would justify what I wanted to do. I did find the following: https://www.uhms.org/images/DCS-AGE-Committee/dcsandage_prevandmgt_uhms-fi.pdf

On page 8 it discussed returning to diving and it states: 2. DCS Type I - Divers with DCS Type I which resolves on initial treatment and who remain asymptomatic may be cleared by a UMO for return to diving 7 days following treatment. (Pending Advance Change Notice)

So, at the end of our week in Dauin, my bf and I had a serious discussion about the risks. I decided I did want to try diving in Anilao and we made a list of things we would do to ensure our diving was conservative in nature (depth limits, Nitrox-only, extended safety stops, intense focus on hydration, etc..). I knew that insurance would not cover any further incident, but I was feeling great, all symptoms were resolved.

In the end, all was fine. I had zero issues in Anilao and did 15 dives. I felt great, we stuck to our “rules” and I guess I was lucky. I certainly understand that most people wouldn’t have made the decision I did, but that’s my choice to make, even if a little foolish. I had over 350 dives under my belt before this incident occurred and I’ve had another 75 dives since with no concerns.

As far as my experiences with DAN goes, I’ve had to use them twice and they were a HUGE help. Trip insurance & DAN covered my missed dives in Dauin as well as the majority of the medical expenses I incurred (and the expenses for the trip delay due to the typhoon). I pretty much came out whole in the end, so no complaints there. I suppose DAN might not be as effective if you can’t contact them.

What I learned was, sometimes sh*t happens! By the way, after speaking with DAN upon my return to the states, I decided not to pursue PFO testing. DAN didn’t feel it was warranted at that point and I likely would not have gone forward with surgery to correct it anyway. That opinion may change should something like this happen again, but so far, so good.
 
Thank you for sharing. Pretty similar to my experience except that I listened to DAN and did not dive afterwards.

Pretty "crazy" what happened to you at the ER, were you still treated with oxygen while on perfusion?. What they did to you was amazing. DAN did never talked to the medical staff during the first night? Kind of strange.

My last question: reading your symptom, it seems that there was some DCS type II involment. What makes you believe it was only type I?

Finally I would love to hear what your "strict rules" were while diving Anilao.

Best regards.
 
Thank you for sharing. Pretty similar to my experience except that I listened to DAN and did not dive afterwards.

Pretty "crazy" what happened to you at the ER, were you still treated with oxygen while on perfusion?. What they did to you was amazing. DAN did never talked to the medical staff during the first night? Kind of strange.

My last question: reading your symptom, it seems that there was some DCS type II involment. What makes you believe it was only type I?

Finally I would love to hear what your "strict rules" were while diving Anilao.

Best regards.

I was on oxygen for about an hour at the resort before leaving for the hospital. Because they refused to believe that I had the skin bends, they would not provide me with treatment for it. I did ask for oxygen, but they just kept stating that I was having an allergic reaction and would not give it to me. I even explained that I had seen the skin bends before on someone else and I was 100% sure this was it.

I did try/offer to connect DAN with the ER doctors in Dumaguete, but they (ER) simply did not want to hear it! They would just basically ignore me. It was pretty ridiculous, actually, given that diving is a big tourism draw down there. I would have thought they would be much more knowledgeable and/or open-minded about this type of thing, but… That’s why I just got ticked off and left.

The doc at the recompression chamber in Cebu diagnosed it as Type I (though, yes, there was some overlap in type II symptoms at the initial onset), so that was the story and I was sticking to it. I did two modified 6A treatments on 100% oxygen while I was there and there were absolutely no residual symptoms after my treatment.

Our rules were basically common sense: Drink LOTS of water throughout the day, no dives deeper than 60 - 65 feet, all dives on 32% nitrox, 3 dives per day max with a minimum of 2 hr surface intervals, 5 – 6 minute safety stops, excruciatingly slow ascents from those safety stops, no hot showers for at least an hour or two after diving (unfortunately, we had some hot water issues in our room so that wasn’t a problem! lol), and I made sure there was 36 hours from my last dive until our flight out.
 
Thank you very much, Divergirl. I believe that what I will hear from the doctor next week is that 3 dives per day is too much. Wait and see :)

The problem with a 2 hours interval between dives is that 90+% of the dive operators are sticking to the 2 dives in the morning with a 60+ minutes interval and no return to the base + one dive in the afternoon or a night dive.

How did you manage to have a 2 hors interval, I am curious :cool:
 
Thank you very much, Divergirl. I believe that what I will hear from the doctor next week is that 3 dives per day is too much. Wait and see :)

The problem with a 2 hours interval between dives is that 90+% of the dive operators are sticking to the 2 dives in the morning with a 60+ minutes interval and no return to the base + one dive in the afternoon or a night dive.

How did you manage to have a 2 hors interval, I am curious :cool:
At our resort in Anilao, the bf & I were assigned a private dive guide and our own boat - this seemed to be their standard. I explained that I had experienced skin beds "in the past" (didn't mention how recent) and what we wanted to do to mitigate further risk and he totally worked around it no problem. We stayed at Aiyanar Beach and Dive Resort. I will say, we were there right after New Year and the resort was fairly quiet until the weekend we departed, so maybe that's why we got such personalized service.
 
At our resort in Anilao, the bf & I were assigned a private dive guide and our own boat - this seemed to be their standard. I explained that I had experienced skin beds "in the past" (didn't mention how recent) and what we wanted to do to mitigate further risk and he totally worked around it no problem. We stayed at Aiyanar Beach and Dive Resort. I will say, we were there right after New Year and the resort was fairly quiet until the weekend we departed, so maybe that's why we got such personalized service.
Aiyanar has great service, period. Never been anywhere so accommodating.
 
You are right, Anilao is VERY special in this respect. The good thing is that most dive sites are not too far away, making it easy to make a single dive trip.
 
Freewillow, I doubt that Dr. Germonpre is going to tell you not to dive any more. The risk of DCS in most dives is not zero; that is, you can stay within the parameters set by your computer or decompression tables and still suffer decompression sickness. From your description it seems that your dive series was provocative; it's possible that the dice just landed on DCS for you on that day. Decreasing your dives to two per day and taking a day off in the middle of your trip would reduce your risk of DCS. Dr. Germonpre might have more detailed recommendations after he sees you.

Resuming diving right after an incident of DCS is not recommended. Though any bubbles you had were probably gone by the end of all that oxygen, the inflammatory effects of the bubbles were likely still there. You would have been at increased risk of DCS if you had dove again. We typically recommend waiting a minimum of four weeks after treatment, provided all symptoms resolve with treatment.

<edit> Diving to 12 meters on 80% nitrox puts your inspired pO2 at 1.75 ATA, which is well above the recommended safe pO2 limit. You'd be off-gassing at that depth on that gas mix, yes, but you'd also put yourself at increased risk of CNS O2 toxicity, as DoctorMike pointed out.

Best regards,
DDM
 
Hello,

I agree with DDM. Unlikely Peter is going to tell you not to dive. He is very sensible and you need not worry about his role in DAN. His priority will be to do the right thing for you. As has been pointed out he may suggest a PFO test given the suspicion of cutis marmorata and the known association between that manifestation of DCS and PFO, but he is the one taking your history and you should not start your conversation with him overly influenced by preconceptions based on what you read here - including anything written by me.

Since it has been raised, I would point out that the issue of whether cutis marmorata represents a manifestation of brain stem injury by bubbles is VERY controversial, and there are several strong arguments against the hypothesis (which is all it is at this stage), especially in a diver who exhibited no other significant neurological symptoms.

The practice of returning to diving on the same trip after mild DCS is obviously also very controversial, and as DDM has pointed out, contravenes standard medical advice. However, I have also seen divers who have suffered very minor issues like a skin rash which resolved with surface oxygen take a couple of days off and return to more conservative diving (eg shorter, shallower, once a day, padded deco) on the same trip - in "trip of a lifetime" type scenarios. It is all a matter of personal evaluation of risk vs benefit, and personal risk acceptance. That sort of thing is not talked about much but certainly occurs occasionally on technical diving expeditions.

Simon M
 
I feel honored and releaved by the messages from two people that I consider stars in their field. Thank you DDM and Simon for your opinion. My message in this and a french speaking forum have given me all reassurance in Dr Germonpré. My question in fact was more "rhethorical" than a real concern. Maybe because my father and uncle were working as "experts" for insurance companies :cool:.

When it comes to the 80% O2 mix, it was a mistake. The original post - in French - was 70% 02. But this was a theoretical question, I would have never bypassed Peter's opinion and advise during this trip, even if I was " painfully stranded" in Lembeh, a place that I wanted to dive since years.
 

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