On second thought, Maybe we are looking at this the wrong way. Taking new divers to 130 feet is risky by almost any standard, especially if one were to panic and bolt up or have an emergency and attempt to CESA from depth....but....
Given the depth and distance to a chamber or other medical care, if there were problems, any medical emergency will be exacerbated due to the distance to care. I don't think there will be any "golden hour" to treatment for a BH victim. A DCS patient will get O2 care and a 2 1/2 hour boat ride to a chamber. That being said, maybe the shops are doing a great job of managing these risks. We don't see BH injuries or deaths in the Accidents and Incidents section very often. There are over 100 divers on BH every week. (Wild assed guess) That number, every week, would catch up sooner or later if the DM's were not effective at managing the risks. In this day and age where everybody has a camera, and posts any incident on YouTube and a description on Scubaboard, accident reports from Belize BH seem to be rare.
Our DM went after a guy that was dropping like a rock, and had to help him to the mooring line for the safety stop. It was just another day at work for him. The DCS risk was managed by keeping the group together and a slow ascent with a 5 minute safety stop. I finished with over 1000 psi with a total dive time around 35 minutes. No one ended up on the hose of shame. We had 2 DMs for 11 divers, 5 of which definately had the skills for the dive. 6 divers needed more hand holding between 2 DMs.
This is based on one trip with one op, so the sample is far from scientific, but but the numbers of divers on a daily basis that do not end up in a chamber or worse have to mean something. Lucky or good...it looks like the DMs are doing a great job of babysitting.
Jay
Given the depth and distance to a chamber or other medical care, if there were problems, any medical emergency will be exacerbated due to the distance to care. I don't think there will be any "golden hour" to treatment for a BH victim. A DCS patient will get O2 care and a 2 1/2 hour boat ride to a chamber. That being said, maybe the shops are doing a great job of managing these risks. We don't see BH injuries or deaths in the Accidents and Incidents section very often. There are over 100 divers on BH every week. (Wild assed guess) That number, every week, would catch up sooner or later if the DM's were not effective at managing the risks. In this day and age where everybody has a camera, and posts any incident on YouTube and a description on Scubaboard, accident reports from Belize BH seem to be rare.
Our DM went after a guy that was dropping like a rock, and had to help him to the mooring line for the safety stop. It was just another day at work for him. The DCS risk was managed by keeping the group together and a slow ascent with a 5 minute safety stop. I finished with over 1000 psi with a total dive time around 35 minutes. No one ended up on the hose of shame. We had 2 DMs for 11 divers, 5 of which definately had the skills for the dive. 6 divers needed more hand holding between 2 DMs.
This is based on one trip with one op, so the sample is far from scientific, but but the numbers of divers on a daily basis that do not end up in a chamber or worse have to mean something. Lucky or good...it looks like the DMs are doing a great job of babysitting.
Jay
