Bends in Cozumel

[gj62]

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=53196&page=1&pp=10

This is a cross-post, and it does include names (but I figured it was OK, because the original poster is the person it happened to). UP - if you feel this is a no-no, go ahead and remove, sorry in advance. I wish both people who contributed the DCS stories on this thread a full recovery and continued enjoyment of diving...

I am putting it here to ask people for their thoughts on the following:

It is known that diving within a computer's limit does not guarantee that you won't suffer a DCS event. Does anyone have info/statistics on whether "Nitrox on Air" (either via computer or tables) has successfully prevented DCS (are the incidents rates truly lower for this type of diving)? Seems logical, but sometimes that's not what reality is...

Does having had DCS make one more susceptible to DCS in the future, or is it just if you have taken a DCS hit while not violating the tables/computer, you have proven to be more susceptible to DCS?

 

[vlada]

http://www.scubaboard.com/showthread.php?t=53196&page=1&pp=10

This is a cross-post, and it does include names (but I figured it was OK, because the original poster is the person it happened to). UP - if you feel this is a no-no, go ahead and remove, sorry in advance. I wish both people who contributed the DCS stories on this thread a full recovery and continued enjoyment of diving...

I am putting it here to ask people for their thoughts on the following:

It is known that diving within a computer's limit does not guarantee that you won't suffer a DCS event. Does anyone have info/statistics on whether "Nitrox on Air" (either via computer or tables) has successfully prevented DCS (are the incidents rates truly lower for this type of diving)? Seems logical, but sometimes that's not what reality is...

Does having had DCS make one more susceptible to DCS in the future, or is it just if you have taken a DCS hit while not violating the tables/computer, you have proven to be more susceptible to DCS?

My thoughts:

1. Diving EAN while using air tables increases your margin of safety - in some cases significantly. So, yes, it is safer. I would recommend it to everyone in the high risk groups - such as people who have history of unexplained hits. However, even EAN on air tables may not be enough in some cases if there is permanent damage from the previous hit(s)

2. I read a lot if literature (Jolie Biorkman for example) that said that previous fully resolved DCS hits do not increase the likelihood for subsequent hits - however, since i started paying attention to the topic, i know of at least 4 people, including myself, who had an unexplained first hit, made full recovery and had DCS again. PFO test was negative

Again, i used to do 5 dives per day with up to 3 of them deco dives - after my initial Type 1, i can't do more than 2 dives per day unless i breath a lot of O2. So my conclusion was that my Type 1 incident drammatically changed my succeptibility - as my doc used to say - "99% of people can do average table and come out just fine - you are now in the 1% minority.

Vlada