Diving, Fitness, Obesity and Personal Rights

[drrich2]

A key question in this discussion is what it is you're trying to do with this physical/medical exam/workup. Let's say you impose a requirement on every diver on Earth, whereby the diver has a face-to-face interview, physical exam and lab work with a Physician or Advanced Nurse Practitioner. Presumably, this will inform the patient (diver) his/her risk factors relevant to scuba diving, and provide a directive (medical opinion) that the person may or (in the caregiver's opinion, rooted in a value system) should not dive.

But that's a tool in a process, not the goal. For those who receive a directive not to dive, is your goal to...

1.) Inform the diver so he or she can make a personal decision to dive or not?

or

2.) To inform some authoritative body (e.g.: deny a certification) to stop them from diving, whether they want to stop or not?

Who are we requiring this info. to empower? The diver, or Big Brother?

Richard.

 

[Bob DBF]

mattia_v said: ↑
Any mandatory physical for something that mostly entails personal risk (i.e. scuba, rather than piloting a plane) should, IMO, have proven benefit it terms of preventing serious incidents or mortality. Otherwise it's just another useless exercise in unnecessary diagnostics and examination.

Given the current mortality rate for scuba, any proof beyond "anecdotal" will take forever.

And considering not all SCUBA deaths are caused by health issues, somewhere south of 50%, I'd say it is not an issue in the same manner that new divers are a major portion of scuba deaths and OW training is not an issue.

It seems that do the low number and rate of health related deaths in SCUBA, the overwhelming majority of divers know when to quit and do, I've seen it happen many times with my buddys over the decades. I also believe it would put an undue burden on the vast majority of divers to possibly avoid a health related death of a small minority.


Bob
---------------------
I may be old, but I'm not dead yet.

 

[Kairoos]

There's a diver that frequents the dive boat I go out on and he's probably 90lbs overweight and short. He has well over a thousand dives, and is a LOT more experienced than I am, and he's better in the water! I'm sure he would handle an emergency situation better than I could and I'm young, skinny, and bike everyday.

Now of course all his experience means very little if he has a heart attack under water!

 

[TMHeimer]

A little off topic, but heart attack underwater is mentioned here & there, especially when discussing solo diving. One (or at least I) has to figure that there are many times that you are by yourself for way longer periods of time than the time needed for someone to find you and dial 911. The only difference is you die a lot quicker underwater without a reg in the mouth.

 

[tkdgodess]

It has crossed my mind a few times, as the medical form is handed in to me, that the first skill we do before we even hit the pool deck is "walk 1.6 km/one mile within 12 mins."

https://www.padi.com/english/common/courses/forms/pdf/10063-ver2-0.pdf

Lets' see if you lied on your form. We are all going for a walk.

 

[redacted]

Great idea. I am sure a smarter business person will be happy to accept the rejected customers.

 

[Tassi Devil Diver]

Fat obsess divers make very nervous when they step on a boat where I am running the dive

 

[drrich2]

Do old customers, obviously 60+, make you nervous leading dives also?

Richard.

 

[Mrs. B]

oh my gosh

you people are totalitarians

of course fatties can dive if they want to

people need to mind their own biz wax

what is America coming to?

 

[Littlerayray]

Fat obsess divers make very nervous when they step on a boat where I am running the dive

Why do they make you nervous
Most divers in my club are overweight and I'm talking some big boys pushing anywhere between 250 and 300 lbs and all are excellent divers
Maybe you shouldn't judge a book by its cover
I must also say I am in a really great club where no one judges you by how you look or what type of gear you have or your skill sets we accommodate everyone so that we all have an enjoyable experience

Don't be so quick to judge