Broken nose and diving

[KeithG]

I did not buy cancellation insurance ...

did you pay for the trip with a credit card? if so, check the details of your credit card agreement. some (many?) canadian credit cards carry built in insurance for purchases made with the card. the insurance often has wide (but not real deep) coverage for things like rental car damage, medical issues, trip cancellation and trip interruption.

 

[TheRealScubaSteve]

Carol,

Sure sounds like you and your son could use some R&R. Glad nothing more serious happened to him and his friends. Have fun on your trip assuming no further complications arise!

 

[carol_swimmom]

Hi all
We are on day 3 of our holiday. He is managing 2 dives a day. His stitches came out before we left. He is having no problems equalizing. No discomfort with sinuses or ears. The only issue he is having is pain from the mask pushing on the bridge of his nose. So he is not snorkeling. He sits out every other dive. He did not want us to cancel in any case.
I appreciate the advice from you all.... BTW we are thoroughly enjoying our trip.

 

[TSandM]

Glad to hear it!

 

[tracydr]

Thanks all. The plastic surgeon we saw this aft has cleared him to fly and snorkel assuming the mask is not hurting him. He said likely no surgery is required and he should heal nicely. The surgeon said he is also a diver. He said my son's nose is displaced with a small crack. I am not sure what that means exactly. He is on broad spectrum antibiotics. He will have the stitches out before he leaves. As far as diving goes what I was told mirrors what TSandM said. Very slowly and abort at the first sign of pain or discomfort.


---------- Post added August 12th, 2014 at 07:53 PM ----------

I guess I should add they are all very lucky (4 of them attacked by 5 thugs) because they had guns.

---------- Post added August 12th, 2014 at 07:56 PM ----------

Oh I should add also he does not need to pinch his nose to equalize - the surgeon asked him about that too.

I'm so glad your son and the other boys weren't more seriously hurt as I could see such a thing could have easily resulted in fatalities. While I realize that your son is very keen to dive on your trip I would keep him to surface snorkeling only. He has two, maybe three medical issues which I would have some concern about wrt diving.
1: It's really fairly impossible to know for sure that he didn't experience traumatic brain injury and what the consequences of exposing his young brain to a hyberbaric environment could be. The risk of seizure is elevated following brain injury. Seizures are rarely survivable deep under water.
2. Sinus and ear barotrauma. Especially if he is a relatively inexperienced diver/free diver. Many ( especially anxious young men) don't recognize the first signs of need to clear until much too late. If he experiences difficulty in either descending or ascending ( reverse squeezes are terribly painful) he runs the risk of pain, further injury and even the potential of panic due to pain.
3. Infection, which is fairly obvious and for which he is being prophylacticly treated for.

Edited to add that I didn't read through your last post.

Again, I'm very relieved that everybody came out of this experience intact. What a terrifying, traumatic experience for young men!