Blood Pressure Under Water

[Duke Dive Medicine]

What is the common reason for divers having heart seizures underwater?

Please define heart seizure. I am not familiar with this terminology.

Best regards,
DDM

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

Which is caused because they were stupid.

On what training, knowledge or experience are you basing this statement?

Best regards,
DDM

 

[MidOH]

Although a joint PADI/DAN study did suggest that a rapid, panicked, breath-holding ascent to the surface is the most action-related cause of death while diving, you have misidentified the reason. It has nothing to do with air entering the blood stream.

The problem is that the air in the lungs expands rapidly in accordance to Boyle's Law. Air in a flexible container (like the lungs) at 33 FSW will double in volume when it reaches the surface. The last 1-15 feet is when the greatest expansion occurs. This can cause a number of different lung overexpansion injuries, the most dangerous is an embolism, a bubble in the blood stream that acts as a clot would. It can cause a very quick death.

Is it from air emerging from solution, in the blood?

Or is the air entering the blood from the lungs, during this?

 

[MidOH]

On what training, knowledge or experience are you basing this statement?

Best regards,
DDM

Most of the ones that I've reviewed, the evidence clearly pointed to panic, and stupidity.

On a level that any open water Diver should be able to understand.


Getting killed by a freeflow, well within NDL, on an easy rec dive, has occurred multiple times locally. It's especially sad, because they were in no danger at all.

 

[boulderjohn]

Is it from air emerging from the blood?

Alveoli in the lung are ruptured, and air bubbles go out into several possible locations. Here is a DAN article explaining it.

Lung Expansion Injuries

DAN Medics answer your questions about dive medicine.

dan.org

 

[boulderjohn]

Most of the ones that I've reviewed, the evidence clearly pointed to panic, and stupidity.

On a level that any open water Diver should be able to understand.

Heart attacks have nothing to do with intelligence. They are also not caused by a panicked ascent to the surface, as noted above.

Most heart attacks happen during the early morning hours, often while eating breakfast, and the second most common time is at night. If you happen to have a heart attack while diving, it would be rare for it to be associated with panic.

 

[MidOH]

Thanks. That's kinda what I was thinking. Anyway air bubble made it to the brain, causing the Diver to pass out and die.

No idea how a coroner can tell.


They weren't heart attacks due to panic, they were embolism caused by panicked accents from nothing.

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

Most of the ones that I've reviewed, the evidence clearly pointed to panic, and stupidity.

On a level that any open water Diver should be able to understand.


Getting killed by a freeflow, well within NDL, on an easy rec dive, has occurred multiple times locally. It's especially sad, because they were in no danger at all.

None of the ones I've seen, treated, evaluated, studied or reviewed over nearly 35 years in Navy diving, diving medicine, and accident analysis were related to stupidity. This is the type of thinking and judgemental talk that (a) has no place in a learning zone and (b) actually detracts from diving safety. If you'd truly reviewed accidents from a human factors perspective, you would understand this. Kindly review the rules of the learning zone.

Best regards,
DDM

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

Heart attacks have nothing to do with intelligence. They are also not caused by a panicked ascent to the surface, as noted above.

Most heart attacks happen during the early morning hours, often while eating breakfast, and the second most common time is at night. If you happen to have a heart attack while diving, it would be rare for it to be associated with panic.

John, the original topic was on pressure and diving. I have no idea where the heart seizure question came from and the member hasn't expanded on it.

 

[Learner Diver]

Please define heart seizure. I am not familiar with this terminology.

Best regards,
DDM

What happens when you have a heart seizure?


In about 80 percent of cases with seizures where the heart is affected, the heart speeds up after a seizure. This heart rhythm is known as sinus tachycardia and can cause heart palpitations.

I didn't know the exact terminology in my original post. This is what I found on Google.