Bent in Belize--Blue Hole Incident

[ScubaSteve]

There are all the bad choices here that bother me but one thing that nobody has mentioned was he called Dan, they told him it wasn't a dcs hit sleep it off!
this is the second time in a year I have heard this from a diver.
a coworker of my wife went to Cozumel last year, she hadn't dove in several years. I believe the first dive was columbia deep, at some point she looked at her gauge and saw she had little air left. She gave low air signal to her buddy (assigned buddy, a stranger on the boat) the buddy shrugged her shoulders and swam away, this girl freaked and bolted to the surface. First sign was. Bloody nose, ok not necessarily dcs. By that next day numbness in her hands and arms, other symptoms starting. She asked the DM, was told not dcs. She called Dan that day, they told her not dcs.
dont want to hijack this thread but I would seriously expect them to err on the side of cautionIt appears they did the same with this diver........not good Dan.

I would say that I expect the whole story was not relayed to DAN if the OP did in fact call them (and that was in fact their reply). I can see nobody telling a diver that made these dives and decisions to try to sleep it off. Not that DAN gets it 100% right every time, but even they could not be that negligent IMO.

 

[vladimir]

Yeah, I'm calling BS on the OP on that part of the story. Doesn't sound right. DAN invariably tells you to go to the hospital.

I suspect you are right, though "BS" might be a little too strong.

I would say that I expect the whole story was not relayed to DAN if the OP did in fact call them (and that was in fact their reply). I can see nobody telling a diver that made these dives and decisions to try to sleep it off. Not that DAN gets it 100% right every time, but even they could not be that negligent IMO.

Yes, there was certainly plenty of room for miscommunication with the OP admittedly drunk. Perhaps the DAN representative discounted his concerns for the same reason. Tingling and numbness are pretty classic symptoms of DCS, I think, but the other symptoms he named (headache, sick stomach) are not, as far as I know.

 

[flots am]

Thank you! While we all recognize the value of DAN insurance, we need to stop genuflecting and critically evaluate their advice.

I do not believe that DAN's response to those dive profiles and symptoms would have been anything other than "go to the chamber."

This whole things sounds fishy.

flots.

 

[Mike]

Isn't the first mistake signing up to dive a site that is deeper than recreational depths?

When you say 'dive site' maybe you mean signing up for a dive that is planned to go deeper than recreational depths? If so I agree. But as far as the dive site being deeper, well just about any wall dive is a dive site that is deeper then recreational limits. When the dive plan is verbalized by the dive master its up to the divers to determine if they are qualified for the dive or not and act, make plans, change the dive plan etc...

These blue hole dives where a dive master tells people you don't need a buddy are ridiculous. They obviously think its a better safety plan to plan on having the dive master ride herd on the dive group and solve problems for them rather than let divers dive as they have been trained as buddy teams, and solve problems between buddies. That explains the mentality of the blue hole dive beyond your training diving that is going on there. Put a group of divers together who are about to dive beyond their limits and rely on a dive master to trouble shoot the problems as they happen.

 

[SC_Hoaty]

When you say 'dive site' maybe you mean signing up for a dive that is planned to go deeper than recreational depths? If so I agree. But as far as the dive site being deeper, well just about any wall dive is a dive site that is deeper then recreational limits. When the dive plan is verbalized by the dive master its up to the divers to determine if they are qualified for the dive or not and act, make plans, change the dive plan etc...

These blue hole dives where a dive master tells people you don't need a buddy are ridiculous. They obviously think its a better safety plan to plan on having the dive master ride herd on the dive group and solve problems for them rather than let divers dive as they have been trained as buddy teams, and solve problems between buddies. That explains the mentality of the blue hole dive beyond your training diving that is going on there. Put a group of divers together who are about to dive beyond their limits and rely on a dive master to trouble shoot the problems as they happen.

Yeah - I don't mean you need a hard bottom. But when what you go to see is at 150', shouldn't the alarm bells in your head start ringing?

 

[vladimir]

I do not believe that DAN's response to those dive profiles and symptoms would have been anything other than "go to the chamber."

As I indicated above, that is probably correct. However, unlike most ScubaBoarders, it seems, I do not worship DAN, and I have no problem believing that they made a mistake. That is what I meant when I said "stop genuflecting"—accept the possibility that the advice they give is occasionally wrong. Appraise it critically and make your own knowledge-based decisions. Numbness? Tingling? Get yourself to a doctor; one who can refer you to a chamber.

 

[genxweb]

Def a eye opener. Forgot how important it is to have DAN. I let my lapse over a year ago. Though yesterday when this story was posted I renewed it and added my family. I got the preferred plan do to my certifications and dive depths.

Thanks for sharing your story and hope you a speedy recovery.

 

[Mike]

Yeah - I don't mean you need a hard bottom. But when what you go to see is at 150', shouldn't the alarm bells in your head start ringing?

Absolutely. Can you imagine the number of divers getting narc'd on these dives, many probably for the first time.

 

[beaverdivers]

Perhaps part of why tables did work is because they are very conservative, annoyingly so.

Wrong! Dive tables are not very conservative.

Depending on the dive table, they can be anything but conservative. The U.S. Navy tables are very liberal. The first electronic dive computer, the EDGE, used a liberal algorithm similar to the navy tables. In 1983, we were happlily using the EDGE. It gave us liberal bottom times on deep ( 130+ ) air dves.
We were young ( 20's ), dumb and ready for adventure.

Yes, we used dive tables before the EDGE.

The recreation dive tables are more consevative than the U.S. navy tables, but they are similar to the newer dive computers.

The reacreation dive tables are not VERY conservative. The reason why they seem conservative when you are doing multi-level dives is because they penalize you for your deepest depth.

 

[tracydr]

I suspect you are right, though "BS" might be a little too strong.

Yes, there was certainly plenty of room for miscommunication with the OP admittedly drunk. Perhaps the DAN representative discounted his concerns for the same reason. Tingling and numbness are pretty classic symptoms of DCS, I think, but the other symptoms he named (headache, sick stomach) are not, as far as I know.

The one time we had a case of DCS in Galapegos on the boat, his presenting symptom was terrible headache. The diver had been doing commercial dives the day before flying to Galapegos. He started getting a headache on his first day of diving and by the time we got all the way to Wolf Island he was clearly not right. Not a good place to need medical help.