plongeursousmarin
Contributor
This would be primarily addressed to dive boat operators, captains and divemasters.
I was on a local charter dive boat last week end and an incident happened that left me wondering. For the first dive of the 2-tank trip, I was buddied up with two experienced guys that I see often on this dive boat and I think I dove with them once before. Anyway they're photographers so the buddy team is "loose", especially when a non-photog like me joins in, we become SOBs (same ocean buddies). We got separated, as I went inside the wreck and they were probably snapping pictures of shrimp and stuff. Anyway, they came up a few minutes after me, after a great dive. 10 minutes or so thereafter as we were slowly getting ready to go to the reef for the second dive, one of the two buddies told me that his buddy couldn't move his left leg. I walked over to them and asked the "victim" what was going on. He told me that he was fine other than his left leg was numb and he could not move it. He said that at first both legs felt tingling but eventually only the left leg had the numbness and that he could not move it, his right leg only had tingling sensation. I told him he should inform the DM and ask for Oxygen. As other divers were getting ready to go in, our diver did not want to attract attention to himself (he felt self-conscious) and ask for O2. Eventually, after convincing him that he should tell the DM, he told the DM about the situation. The DM asked the questions about his symptoms, checked the guy's dive computer (I don't remember the data but his was a no-deco dive to about 100 feet, I don't think he was on Nitrox) for the log but seemed to think that it sure sounded like a hit. He told the captain, who then asked our diver if he had DAN insurance (he did) and called DAN. From this point on things get confused for me, as I could not hear the captain's end of the conversation with DAN and people were jumping in for their dive. My two buddies, the DM and captain urged me to go in with a group and not forfeit my dive so I jumped in... 45 minutes later I came back on the boat and enquired about the guy, who seemed fine and said that he was now OK. I asked the captain if they had put him on O2 and his response was "no, if we do we have to take him in". I left it at that but this answer has been nagging me since. I did not want to second-guess these guys, but I could not help but feeling perplexed about this answer. So if I understand correctly, every boat has O2 on board but it's just for show, or if you're spitting blood upon surfacing or something? If you're suspected of having a problem like that guy, the boat crew won't use O2 because it's a hassle and they have to report it and trigger some rescue mission with the USCG and all the red tape that goes along with that? What is the procedure? If this is the case I may consider buying my own O2 bottle. I always took for granted the fact that O2 is on board for your safety, now I'm not so sure. I wish dive briefings included info on what circumstances O2 would be administered on board. Sorry I made this long, please no flaming about buddy separation, etc. Dive professionals, your opinion is appreciated. Thanks.
I was on a local charter dive boat last week end and an incident happened that left me wondering. For the first dive of the 2-tank trip, I was buddied up with two experienced guys that I see often on this dive boat and I think I dove with them once before. Anyway they're photographers so the buddy team is "loose", especially when a non-photog like me joins in, we become SOBs (same ocean buddies). We got separated, as I went inside the wreck and they were probably snapping pictures of shrimp and stuff. Anyway, they came up a few minutes after me, after a great dive. 10 minutes or so thereafter as we were slowly getting ready to go to the reef for the second dive, one of the two buddies told me that his buddy couldn't move his left leg. I walked over to them and asked the "victim" what was going on. He told me that he was fine other than his left leg was numb and he could not move it. He said that at first both legs felt tingling but eventually only the left leg had the numbness and that he could not move it, his right leg only had tingling sensation. I told him he should inform the DM and ask for Oxygen. As other divers were getting ready to go in, our diver did not want to attract attention to himself (he felt self-conscious) and ask for O2. Eventually, after convincing him that he should tell the DM, he told the DM about the situation. The DM asked the questions about his symptoms, checked the guy's dive computer (I don't remember the data but his was a no-deco dive to about 100 feet, I don't think he was on Nitrox) for the log but seemed to think that it sure sounded like a hit. He told the captain, who then asked our diver if he had DAN insurance (he did) and called DAN. From this point on things get confused for me, as I could not hear the captain's end of the conversation with DAN and people were jumping in for their dive. My two buddies, the DM and captain urged me to go in with a group and not forfeit my dive so I jumped in... 45 minutes later I came back on the boat and enquired about the guy, who seemed fine and said that he was now OK. I asked the captain if they had put him on O2 and his response was "no, if we do we have to take him in". I left it at that but this answer has been nagging me since. I did not want to second-guess these guys, but I could not help but feeling perplexed about this answer. So if I understand correctly, every boat has O2 on board but it's just for show, or if you're spitting blood upon surfacing or something? If you're suspected of having a problem like that guy, the boat crew won't use O2 because it's a hassle and they have to report it and trigger some rescue mission with the USCG and all the red tape that goes along with that? What is the procedure? If this is the case I may consider buying my own O2 bottle. I always took for granted the fact that O2 is on board for your safety, now I'm not so sure. I wish dive briefings included info on what circumstances O2 would be administered on board. Sorry I made this long, please no flaming about buddy separation, etc. Dive professionals, your opinion is appreciated. Thanks.
