DCI in Thailand

[scuba_mike]

Very glad to hear Taipeidiver that you're on the road to a full recovery. In addition to the previous profile and insurance questions, could you also please indicate if you were diving regular air or specific nitrox blends? Best wishes for your upcoming Truk trip.

Cheers

 

[Batfish]

Glad you are all OK. Sounds like you did the right thing in reporting the symptoms right away, and the tour leader of the boat sounds like a responsible person in immediately heading for port. Agree the Badalveda team is great. Did you meet Rowan?

So - heading back for another try in Thailand next year?

 

[Cudabait]

Taipei,

Did you do anything strenuos during or after the last dive? My question is based on things Dr. Deco said at a presentation here in the Houston area.

Regards,

 

[Taipeidiver]

Questions:
1) what type of dive computer were you wearing? - Suunto Stinger
2) did your dc ever provide any alarms? - It does provide alarms but none were given on this dive.
3) how close, if you recall, to your ndl time limits did you stay at certain levels? For example, I don't like to be at a depth when my DC shows single digits of ndl. - I got to within 1 minute of deco.
4) also, do you recall feeling anything unusual after dive 3? - I felt a bit tired, but I put that down to poor sleep more than anything.

 

[Taipeidiver]

I'm glad to hear that your going to make a full recovery. As I'm sure others will ask you, would you mind sharing with us the profile of your 4 dives (depth and bottom time). Also what safety stops did you do (time and depth) ?

All dives were on air, using a single 15L steel tank.

Dive 1 - 0733hrs, 28.0 metres, 61 minutes (multi-level dive), following a surface interval of 12 hours, 13 minutes. 3 minute safety stop at 5 metres.

Dive 2 - 1031hrs, 27.4 metres, 54 minutes (multi-level dive), following a surface interval of 1 hour, 56 minutes. 3 minute safety stop at 5 metres.

Dive 3 - 1331hrs, 24.3 metres, 41 minutes (multi-level dive), following a surface interval of 2 hours, 5 minutes. 3 minute safety stop at 5 metres.

Dive 4 - 1704hrs, 28.0 metres, 49 minutes (multi-level dive), following a surface interval of 2 hours, 52 minutes. 3 minute safety stop at 5 metres.

 

[Taipeidiver]

Glad to hear you are ok TaipeiDiver and that Truk is as good as I hear it is.

Just one question to go with the others: did they check for insurance before treatment or how is it charged? I'll hopefully be in Phuket for few months this summer and in the unlikely event Id like to be covered!

The hospital was really good, they treated me immediately even without my insurance details. If you have insurance they will most likely charge them direct (esp. DAN insurance), or will take credit cards or money transfers.

 

[Taipeidiver]

I am glad to heare you are recovering quickly, and hope this was the last of your bad mojo. I too am curious about the insurance details. How did your primary insurance and DAN or secondary insurance come through, what kinds of costs were unexpected or uncovered. I do not mean to be too prying, but it would be nice to have an idea of how it all worked out before any of us find ourselves in a similar situation.

Thanks for sharing your story so we can all learn.

Apparently, the cost of chamber treatments can vary greatly between countries (this was explained to me at a recent DAN seminar). My chamber treatments cost a total of 257,000THB including clinical care and nursing. They bill you for everything; ambulances, x-rays, consumables (even the needles and syringes for blood tests), room accommodation, nursing and such like. I was lucky, really, if it had been more serious or if I hadn't responded to treatment I could have easily doubled that bill.

My advice, make sure you have insurance! DAN would be my recommendation but you should follow your instincts.

 

[Taipeidiver]

Glad you are all OK. Sounds like you did the right thing in reporting the symptoms right away, and the tour leader of the boat sounds like a responsible person in immediately heading for port. Agree the Badalveda team is great. Did you meet Rowan?

So - heading back for another try in Thailand next year?

I did indeed meet Rowan, they dragged the poor guy out of his bed when I was admitted at 3am. He's a good guy and really looked after me during my stay.

As for Phuket, I am STILL not giving up on the place! I will probably be back in March or April for some sailing, and will probably have another go at diving Richelieu Rock sometime this year. I am nothing if not determined! Or is that stubborn?

 

[Batfish]

When you look back at that data..

4 dives all deeper than 24m. Last dive of the day deeper than the 2 previous dives to 28m, on which you reached to within 1 minute of the deco limit.

99.5% of the time, not a problem.

2 more questions.

Did you spend a lot of time in the sun on the liveaboard?

Did you drink lots of water?

In Thailand, and I am sure, other tropical environments, dehydration is a major factor in the cases of DCS, even if people are not aware of it. Then, a borderline dive profile can be enough. I used to advise people (when I was a tour leader on a liveaboard in Thailand) to drink a glass of water before and after every dive. Another tour leader I worked with advised people to basically drink a cup of water every time they walked past the water dispenser.

At least you say you were not drinking alcohol. In Phuket, you can well imagine, plenty of divers will have a few the night before diving, then factor in the heat, dry air from the tank, coffee for breakfast, coke for lunch...

Anyhow, in this case, no harm done, lucky to be in a place where you have very good hyperbaric services. Hope you'll come back and do a whole trip!

 

[MoonWrasse]

Questions:
1) what type of dive computer were you wearing? - Suunto Stinger
2) did your dc ever provide any alarms? - It does provide alarms but none were given on this dive.
3) how close, if you recall, to your ndl time limits did you stay at certain levels? For example, I don't like to be at a depth when my DC shows single digits of ndl. - I got to within 1 minute of deco.
4) also, do you recall feeling anything unusual after dive 3? - I felt a bit tired, but I put that down to poor sleep more than anything.

Thanks!
I also use a Stinger.

Often I have some sleep problems during my visits to Phuket over the past 10 years. On a liveaboard, when I was at the Similans about a month ago, I'd drink half a Chang and keep the AC just a little cool so I could sleep 7-8 hours straight.

Reviewing my PADI Deep Specialty book, they list the following factors to increase DCS susceptability:
Age,
Excess fat tissue,
Heavy exertion before/during/after deep dives,
Dehydration,
Alcohol,
Cold water,
Taking hot showers just after diving.

Also I seem to recall hearing that being tired was listed as a augmenting factor.

For myself, I recognize that I'm not the slim spring chicken as often my DM or others in the group are. So I'm a little conservative on my NDL time and watch it. Often I'll swim a meter or so above others in the group to keep me more inside of no-deco limits.

I'm also starting to increase my safety stop time just a tad, and do my final ascent slower than others in the group.