Chamber Question

[GLENFWB]

While reading the post on DAN insurance and while reading a few other threads I am amazed at the number of people who talk about being in the decompression chamber. I just got certified so I am new at this. While going through my PADI training I thought it would be rare to see circumstances where people would need to be in the chamber. Are there many recreational divers who end up in the chamber or is this mainly deep and Tech diving??? Just a little concerned I may have missed something in my training. I would appreciate you experienced folks thoughts on this.

 

[texdiveguy]

There are many more recreational divers visiting chambers. If you are going to dive, the cost of the insurance is very little compared to a chamber ride both in the USA and abroad. You never know when you might find yourself needing such insurance--plus the policy covers other dive related issues....I would recommend the coverage.

 

[GLENFWB]

My question really is WHY are so many divers ending up in chambers?? Are they diving deeper then normal recreational limits? As a new diver I just want to make sure I avoid making some errors that would make me end up in a chamber.

 

[Rick Inman]

Well, it's really not that many compared to the number of dives being made every day.

 

[DandyDon]

My question really is WHY are so many divers ending up in chambers?? Are they diving deeper then normal recreational limits? As a new diver I just want to make sure I avoid making some errors that would make me end up in a chamber.

It's really rare. You're just seeing reports that are collected to report in particular sites.

Unless you're on a Cozumel boat with a Dan card and ONE symptom. Then chamber rides are common - and I'm sure some were needed. :lol2:

 

[pasley]

Many recreational divers do not talk or ever mention their chamber rides. If you ask around your circle of divers you may be surprised to learn how many have at one point or another taken a chamber ride. Why? Well diving is safe enough, but stuff does happen.

The cause? Well there are many factors that can cause you to get bent including:
NDL - staying down too long and then not doing the deco
Rapid Ascent - coming up too quickly
Dehydration - not drinking enough water, or drinking the wrong stuff (booze).
Fatigue
physical deformities-diver may have a PFO (do a search for that term) or other deformity making them more prone
Age
Inattentive to the rules of diving.
Distraction/multi-tasking - getting wrapped up in the excitement of diving or hunting or photos and forgetting to check little things like, oh say air, and then having to make a rapid ascent.

All of the above are risk factors in diving for the bends. So you can see given the large number of divers out there how it would naturally follow that some would run afoul of one or more of the above and get a hit. Then we have the large number of divers who only dive on vacation once a year and are a tad rusty and forget to observe all the rules of diving or do not have adequate control of their buoyancy. So you can see with the convergence of a large number of dives every year and the number of contributing factors to getting bent, there are several divers that will get bent every year, but they are a small percentage of the total number of dives made every year. But overall diving is about as safe as driving, and you have insurance for that don't you?

Another thing to look at is the cost of insurance. As dive insurance is dirt cheap (a lot less than auto insurance), that tells me the insurance companies consider it a low risk.

Personally I would not dream of diving without insurance. DAN is my preferred provider. I got a hit on lifetime dive 12 back in 2001 (took a total of 3 rides)- most probable cause was dehydration and age as the NDL, and ascent rate were observed, but it may have been other factors.

See DocDeco subforum on this board for more on the bends or Accidents and Incidents.

 

[Web Monkey]

My question really is WHY are so many divers ending up in chambers?? Are they diving deeper then normal recreational limits? As a new diver I just want to make sure I avoid making some errors that would make me end up in a chamber.

Some people end up in a chamber because they didn't do the required stops or exceeded the recommended dive time or ascent rate for their dive.

Some people end up in a chamber because they have medical problems that cause them to off-gas less efficiently than the people the tables were designed for.

Some end up in a chamber for unknown reasons. They supposedly did a "normal" dive and ascent, and still got bent.

Factors that seem to effect the chances of getting DCS include lack of proper hydration, and some medications. You can check the DAN website for a much more comprehensive explanation.

The chances of any individual dive requiring a chamber visit are slim, and I personally know people who have over 5000 dives and have never been to a chamber, the insurance is really almost a necessity, since evey dive is a "spin at the DCS wheel", and a chamber ride ranges from "really expensive" to "amazingly expensive" depending on what part of the world you happen to be in when it happens.

Terry

 

[TSandM]

Your question is a good one, and with luck, the answers will get you to think about diving a little differently.

When I got certified, we were basically taught that there was "No decompression limit" diving, and then there was technical or decompression diving. It was never stated, but one came away with the idea that the two were somehow DIFFERENT.

They're not, really.

Every dive is a decompression dive. By that, I mean that every dive involves descending into pressure, absorbing nitrogen, and ascending to lesser pressure and offgassing. At some point, the amount of nitrogen you absorb gets so great that you can't go directly to the surface without an unacceptable risk of decompression symptoms. Although the tables you were taught may have given you the idea that there is a clear and sharp cutoff between the two kinds of dives, there isn't.

The algorithms that are used to generate those tables are mathematical constructs and make certain assumptions about how gases behave in the body. The equations generate numbers, and then tables are then validated to a greater or lesser extent by observing the outcome of a number of dives. The table is considered valid if the rate of DCS seen is less than an arbitrary number. But it's never zero.

There is a lot that is not understood about decompression -- about individual susceptibility, about the role of anatomic abnormalities like patent foramen ovale in increasing risk, about the contribution of such things as cold, exertion and hydration status. As a result, there are, and probably will continue to be, some incidents of DCS which simply cannot be explained. The risk is low if you have good technique and stay within the algorithm limits, but it is always there.

That's precisely the kind of situation where insurance is both useful and affordable. You have a very small risk of a very expensive problem.

 

[trucker girl]

Dandy Don- that Cozumel comment was great...

The only person I've ever talked to who had to "ride the chamber" was a girl in Cozumel (who, btw, wouldn't SHUT UP! We called her Chatty Cathy). She had come down with a whole group of relatives and friends who had left over a week earlier. She wasn't allowed to fly out yet due to her trip to the chamber and the altitude in an airplane. Why'd she end up in the chamber? She mentioned that her fingers were feeling numb and the dive op insisted she go to the hospital (liability I assume?).

Her comment to me? "If the boys say they're going this deep, then I go deeper. If the boys say they're going down for this long, then I'm going down for longer." Go figure.

Turns out she was told that if she ever dives below 60 ft again she might die. That's what SHE said, anyway.

I have DAN insurance because you never know when something might go wrong. I mostly just do quarry diving and mostly stay above 35 ish... but who knows. You can't negate possibilities.

My fingers ALWAYS feel numb... so I simply don't mention it (they're a little cold now, even, and I'm just typing!).

 

[TheRedHead]

Unless you're on a Cozumel boat with a Dan card and ONE symptom. Then chamber rides are common - and I'm sure some were needed. :lol2:

I was witness to a guy getting bent in Cozumel on a shallow night dive on Paradise Reef. He took an "undeserved" Type II hit and was seriously messed up and will probably never dive again. Fortunately, he had Dr. Piccollo and a chamber.

People get bent in Cozumel beacuse it's hot and they get dehydrated, they party and drink after diving, the dives are generally at the edge of recreational diving and they don't have the training or knowledge about deep stops and deco to lessen the risks of those dives.

I'm really surprised that you made light of this, Don. Any DCI symptom should be taken seriously and reported.