Can I dive normally, after a serious car accident back in 2012?

[XMEtienne]

Hi there,

Back in 2012 I had a seriously bad car accident, few broken ribs, perforated lung and broken collar bone, I was quite incapacitated for about two months...

I made a choice at the time to wear a weight backpack in order to straighten up my collar bone and therefore avoid having a surgery and an iron bar inserted in it, after 6 months no more pain and felt strong again. Four years later I've got a shoulder slightly lower then the other one, but hey... it improved my golf handicap (17 down to 6) drastically... I have no pain, I can lift heavy weights and do strong efforts without even feeling the slightest pain on my shoulder...

I started diving again back in 2014 and have been doing some pretty much conservative and ND dives (quite a few) at 12 meters 35 minutes max and spent extended safety stops at 5 meters for 6 minutes and 3 meters for another 6 to 9 minutes, sometimes even more as on a nice coral reef there is a lot to see at that depth and colors are still amazing...

Now the question is... Can I take the risk going deeper and start diving normally or does it represent a risk of nitrogen building up on my collar bone and eventually a serious onset factor for a DCI?

Moreover a friend of mine, owner of a dive shop asked me to come and help him to run dive courses as he is completely overloaded of work... I would not want to start teaching again and suddenly face a problem!

Looking forward hearing from you all...

Max

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

Max,

The best answer to this question would come from a diving medical professional who can evaluate you in person.

That said, if the circulation in a particular area is compromised, it will inhibit both on-gassing and off-gassing. It's hard to say what your personal risk of DCS in the area of your injury would be, but it's probably low. Out of an abundance of caution you may want to pad your decompression, but I have no data to back that suggestion up.

Best regards,
DDM

 

[chillyinCanada]

My broken but then healed collarbone has never given me the slightest problem in that regard. What's the wordvom your perforated lung?

 

[XMEtienne]

Max,

The best answer to this question would come from a diving medical professional who can evaluate you in person.

That said, if the circulation in a particular area is compromised, it will inhibit both on-gassing and off-gassing. It's hard to say what your personal risk of DCS in the area of your injury would be, but it's probably low. Out of an abundance of caution you may want to pad your decompression, but I have no data to back that suggestion up.

Best regards,
DDM

I really would want to go and see a diving medical professional, but in m part of the World (Tanzania) I would probably need to fly to South Africa to have me checked... Moreover the physician I've visited had not the slightest clue about diving and risk incurred, that was very reassuring having him telling me no problem if you can play soccer again then why wouldn't you be able to dive again!?!?!? what an incompetent m_r_n! Well, I guess I will have to be extra careful and will do a visit next time I go to Europe... Thanks, for the advice

 

[XMEtienne]

My broken but then healed collarbone has never given me the slightest problem in that regard. What's the wordvom your perforated lung?

That is actually a good question! Well, I'm actually a smoker and still do a lot of sports, lungs were never a problem prior and after the accident... and now that you talk about it and have had a good thought, I never felt any constraint, pressure, pain and so forth... If I remember Padi medical form, it mentioned about pneumothorax (collapsed lung) but never about perforated lung... Well, but thanks for raising the point and for sure I will look into that as well

 

[thez_yo]

I've got some scar tissue from a couple surgeries and injuries and I got some advice from UTD when I dove with them. Their basic model to off-gas on the way up from non-deco dives is to do a stop half your max depth for a minute, and a minute stop each 10' thereafter (like UTD's version of the PADI 15' safety stop for 3mins). The advice I received was to double my shallow stops, that is to do a 2min stop at each 30', 20' and 10', because scar/compromised tissue will take longer to off-gas. If you haven't yet, I'd read some diving physiology information. I'm not sure how accurate this wikipedia article is, but it's a good starting point: Decompression theory - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Doctorfish]

Lung perforation will generally cause a pneumothorax. You could have some persistent lung scar leading to air trapping with pressure differential. Being able to do other sports not really relevant. You need an expert opinion.

 

[Doctorfish]

By the way, even though my nom de guerre is Doctorfish, I'm not that kind of doctor.

 

[boulderjohn]

I had a very similar injury, with the only differences being that I had a partial pneuomothorax with no puncture, and I did have a plate put in my collarbone. I was back diving as soon as I was physically capable of doing it. (But my golf is as bad as ever.)

As has been explained to me, the big issue with a pneumothorax is not so much that you had one but WHY you had one. A pneumothorax caused by trauma is different from a spontaneous pneumothorax. If was spontaneous, there is a possibility it could happen again during a dive, which is not good. If it was caused by trauma, there is no more likelihood of it happening than with any other diver.

That is my understanding, but I am not a doctor.