Diving incident causing heart problems?

[TERRYK]

My wife hit a large black sea urchin on a dive trip to the Cocos islands in 2001. She had to surface and experienced difficulty breathing and it seemed her lungs filled up with fluid. With oxygen and meds (antihistamines I think) this cleared up quickly and she returned to diving after a days rest.

Several months later however she developed caridac problems which have since been treated and have almost been resolved. The question as to the cause has not been resolved however. The cardiologists were surprised at the speed of the onset of the problems and also at the speed at which her condition improved.

There is no evidence of a previous underlying condition and no evidence of infection.

Has anyone come accross a similar situation as the speculation also includes possible viral infection and also possible cardiotoxins from the sea urchin stings?

 

[ssra30]

Sounds like your wife initially has a significant allergic reaction to the toxin of the sea urchin. To the best of my knowledge (of course I could be wrong here), there should be no long lasting affect to the heart. Not sure about the fluid fill lung, however, in significant allergic reaction, the airway can constrict and cause significant breathing difficulty. That would be much more common that fluid filled lung and I doubt that oxygen and antihistamines alone would take care of fluid filled lung problem.


What kind of cardiac problems did she have afterward and what kind of treatment did she receive. Since you mentioned viral infection, I would guess that it was some kind of myocarditis ( inflammation of the heart muscle) which cause congestive heart failure, or perhaps vasculitis in the coronary artery ( very rare)
My guess based on the information I have so far would be that the two events are unrelated as I have not heard of any cardiotoxin that would cause heart problems months later and recover quickly. More commonly cardiotoxin would cause heart problem either after certain amount of time (generally permanent damage) or acutely but generally wear off and cause no permanent damage I think.

 

[BigJetDriver]

TERRYK once bubbled...
My wife hit a large black sea urchin on a dive trip to the Cocos islands in 2001. She had to surface and experienced difficulty breathing and it seemed her lungs filled up with fluid. With oxygen and meds (antihistamines I think) this cleared up quickly and she returned to diving after a days rest.

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INSERT: I am not a cardiac specialist, simply a DMT, but the description of the symptoms, the rapidity of onset, and the resolution tend to indicate an allergic reaction to the sea urchin proteins.

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Several months later however she developed cardiac problems which have since been treated and have almost been resolved. The question as to the cause has not been resolved however. The cardiologists were surprised at the speed of the onset of the problems and also at the speed at which her condition improved.

There is no evidence of a previous underlying condition and no evidence of infection.

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INSERT: The key here is the length of time between the incident and the onset of the next set of symptoms. The extended interval would tend to rule out any connection. While there seems to have been no previous report of difficulty, this does not rule out the possibility of a developing but undiscovered condition.

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Has anyone come accross a similar situation as the speculation also includes possible viral infection and also possible cardiotoxins from the sea urchin stings?

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I do not know of anything in the literature which would indicate that sea urchins are a vector for any kind of virus. In fact, the nature of the beast, so to speak, tends to rule that out altogether. (Sorry, I just couldn't resist that one!)

I am glad that your wife has fully recovered, and hope that she will be back to diving soon.