Dive Accident Report:
Last week a free diver/spearo who is NOT a certified scuba diver and who never received any formal training in scuba diving suffered a decompression sickness hit in Tripoli, Libya. His dive
profile was:
First Dive (on air):
Max Depth: 28.9 meters
Average Depth: 18m
Total Dive time 39m
Safety Stop for 5 min at 6m
Water Temp: 26C
SIT: 90min
[Although he owed a required decompressions stop with substantial time at 5 meters, no signs of Decompression sickness during his SIT time was reported.]
Second Dive:
Max Depth: 29m
Average Depth: 22m
Total Dive Time: 39 min
Safety Stop for 5min at 6m
When he came up to the surface from his second dive, he felt numbness at both of upper arms. He went down for an in water recompression dive on air that was essentially a third dive:
Max depth: 10m
Average Depth: 6m
Total Dive Time: 40 min
He was using air for this in water recompression dive.
According to the NAUI Dive Tables:
He exceeded the no decompression time for his first dive and was required to do a 15 min required Deco stop at 5m but he didnt do this stop. He ended up as a K diver at the end of the first dive and an H diver at the end of the 90min SIT time. For a second dive to 30 meters, he had 30 min of RNT and NO AMDT. His TNT for the second dive was 69min!!!
NAUIs dive tables do NOT show decompression information for somebody who overstayed his time limit by this much!!!! He was WAY too far to the right in table one in NAUIs tables. His attempt for in water recompression did not help either at all.
When he came up from his third dive (in water recompression session), he still exhibited symptoms of decompression sickness, pain and tingling in his extremities. He proceeded to the local medical center where he was given 100% O2 to breathe for approximately 2 hours. His symptoms seemed to have subsided after this 100% O2 therapy (he had to tell the medical staff at the medical center that he needed to breathe 100% O2 since no one there knew anything about decompression sickness or about how to treat dive injuries). This injured diver was told by his friend that since his symptoms seemed to subside after the 100% O2 therapy (no recompression chamber treatment yet), he need not worry about going to a recompression chamber. He called me when he was about to leave the hospital and asked for a second opinion. I informed him that he needed to get to a chamber ASAP even if his symptoms seem to be less after the 100% O2 therapy he received at the hospital.
There are no professional type of recompression chambers within easy reach in Libya for the recreational divers. There is one sponge fisherman who has an old chamber aboard his fishing boat he uses for recompressing his divers. This fisherman was crudely trained by Greek sponge fishermen long time ago and uses some French Recompression tables he was given by these Greek Sponge divers. He was kind enough to treats injured scuba divers for very little money. I knew about this sponge diver from contacts of mine but never met him in person.
I gave the injured diver the name of the location where this sponge diver docks his boat with the recompression chamber. I convinced him to go and seek this fishermans help. He went to the marina where the chamber was and was lucky to find the boat still in the marina. I went to the marine to check on him shortly after he went there. When I arrived, he was already in the chamber for almost one-hour. He had access to 100% O2 inside the small chamber. He came out of the chamber after approximately one hour total time inside. He seemed to be symptom free after the treatment and went home.
I have been in contact with this diver since his ordeal started and now he reports that he is all OK with no residual effects. No medical follow up for him as far as I know. No verification by a specialist that he is actually OK. No neurological examination of any type was performed.
This person is an exceptionally lucky person (assuming that he really has no residual effects from his ordeal. I am not so sure however). The fact that he is a young person (in his twenties) and in great shape helped him a lot in addition to the fact that his average depths were shallower than his max depth (he appears to have spent most of his time in shallow waters and not at his max depth).
Although this person is an accomplished free diver, he was NEVER trained to scuba dive by a licensed and authorized professional scuba instructor at all. He isnt the first or the last person to go through this ordeal in Libya. He is merely a lucky person to have survived it and had the most incredible fortune in having access to a recompression chamber this easily in Libya. Practically no injured divers in Libya have this chance at all. What is worse than untrained people going scuba diving without any real instructions is the nightmare of having people in Libya run scuba training programs who are not instructors and never had any type of training as recreational scuba instructors. We have several of these charlatans in Libya. There are also divers who learned to survive while scuba diving who are teaching others to scuba dive. There are probably around five legitimately certified scuba instructors in Libya but many more who claim to be but arent certified scuba instructors.
Lots of work and education to be done here in Libya. I hope that Ill have the patience and the endurance to help change the situation and educate the people and avoid this type of insanity and criminal activities. I think that Ill start offering the following services in the coming year:
1. Collect more information on dive related injuries amongst civilian recreational divers in Libya.
2. Run awareness workshop on decompression and dive tables.
3. Lead efforts to establish proper recompression treatment centers in Libya as a not for profit organization.
4. Make people more aware of the value and importance of receiving proper instruction from professional certified instructors and avoid charlatans who arent certified scuba instructors.
5. Pray to Allah more to give me the patience and stamina to do what I want to do here in Libya and still keep what is left of my sanity.
6. Have the opportunity to dive more and cool off underwater
Last week a free diver/spearo who is NOT a certified scuba diver and who never received any formal training in scuba diving suffered a decompression sickness hit in Tripoli, Libya. His dive
profile was:
First Dive (on air):
Max Depth: 28.9 meters
Average Depth: 18m
Total Dive time 39m
Safety Stop for 5 min at 6m
Water Temp: 26C
SIT: 90min
[Although he owed a required decompressions stop with substantial time at 5 meters, no signs of Decompression sickness during his SIT time was reported.]
Second Dive:
Max Depth: 29m
Average Depth: 22m
Total Dive Time: 39 min
Safety Stop for 5min at 6m
When he came up to the surface from his second dive, he felt numbness at both of upper arms. He went down for an in water recompression dive on air that was essentially a third dive:
Max depth: 10m
Average Depth: 6m
Total Dive Time: 40 min
He was using air for this in water recompression dive.
According to the NAUI Dive Tables:
He exceeded the no decompression time for his first dive and was required to do a 15 min required Deco stop at 5m but he didnt do this stop. He ended up as a K diver at the end of the first dive and an H diver at the end of the 90min SIT time. For a second dive to 30 meters, he had 30 min of RNT and NO AMDT. His TNT for the second dive was 69min!!!
NAUIs dive tables do NOT show decompression information for somebody who overstayed his time limit by this much!!!! He was WAY too far to the right in table one in NAUIs tables. His attempt for in water recompression did not help either at all.
When he came up from his third dive (in water recompression session), he still exhibited symptoms of decompression sickness, pain and tingling in his extremities. He proceeded to the local medical center where he was given 100% O2 to breathe for approximately 2 hours. His symptoms seemed to have subsided after this 100% O2 therapy (he had to tell the medical staff at the medical center that he needed to breathe 100% O2 since no one there knew anything about decompression sickness or about how to treat dive injuries). This injured diver was told by his friend that since his symptoms seemed to subside after the 100% O2 therapy (no recompression chamber treatment yet), he need not worry about going to a recompression chamber. He called me when he was about to leave the hospital and asked for a second opinion. I informed him that he needed to get to a chamber ASAP even if his symptoms seem to be less after the 100% O2 therapy he received at the hospital.
There are no professional type of recompression chambers within easy reach in Libya for the recreational divers. There is one sponge fisherman who has an old chamber aboard his fishing boat he uses for recompressing his divers. This fisherman was crudely trained by Greek sponge fishermen long time ago and uses some French Recompression tables he was given by these Greek Sponge divers. He was kind enough to treats injured scuba divers for very little money. I knew about this sponge diver from contacts of mine but never met him in person.
I gave the injured diver the name of the location where this sponge diver docks his boat with the recompression chamber. I convinced him to go and seek this fishermans help. He went to the marina where the chamber was and was lucky to find the boat still in the marina. I went to the marine to check on him shortly after he went there. When I arrived, he was already in the chamber for almost one-hour. He had access to 100% O2 inside the small chamber. He came out of the chamber after approximately one hour total time inside. He seemed to be symptom free after the treatment and went home.
I have been in contact with this diver since his ordeal started and now he reports that he is all OK with no residual effects. No medical follow up for him as far as I know. No verification by a specialist that he is actually OK. No neurological examination of any type was performed.
This person is an exceptionally lucky person (assuming that he really has no residual effects from his ordeal. I am not so sure however). The fact that he is a young person (in his twenties) and in great shape helped him a lot in addition to the fact that his average depths were shallower than his max depth (he appears to have spent most of his time in shallow waters and not at his max depth).
Although this person is an accomplished free diver, he was NEVER trained to scuba dive by a licensed and authorized professional scuba instructor at all. He isnt the first or the last person to go through this ordeal in Libya. He is merely a lucky person to have survived it and had the most incredible fortune in having access to a recompression chamber this easily in Libya. Practically no injured divers in Libya have this chance at all. What is worse than untrained people going scuba diving without any real instructions is the nightmare of having people in Libya run scuba training programs who are not instructors and never had any type of training as recreational scuba instructors. We have several of these charlatans in Libya. There are also divers who learned to survive while scuba diving who are teaching others to scuba dive. There are probably around five legitimately certified scuba instructors in Libya but many more who claim to be but arent certified scuba instructors.
Lots of work and education to be done here in Libya. I hope that Ill have the patience and the endurance to help change the situation and educate the people and avoid this type of insanity and criminal activities. I think that Ill start offering the following services in the coming year:
1. Collect more information on dive related injuries amongst civilian recreational divers in Libya.
2. Run awareness workshop on decompression and dive tables.
3. Lead efforts to establish proper recompression treatment centers in Libya as a not for profit organization.
4. Make people more aware of the value and importance of receiving proper instruction from professional certified instructors and avoid charlatans who arent certified scuba instructors.
5. Pray to Allah more to give me the patience and stamina to do what I want to do here in Libya and still keep what is left of my sanity.
6. Have the opportunity to dive more and cool off underwater