diving with broken rib

[knotical]

And/or can you do a pool dive before your trip to see how that goes?

---------- Post added October 25th, 2015 at 03:36 PM ----------

See also this thread: http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/basic-scuba-discussions/382607-diving-injured-rib.html which includes responses from a physician (TSandM)

 

[bowlofpetunias]

I am not a doctor and my Paramedic License has long since expired

I would be emphaticly in the Don't dive Group. There is too much potential that anything that impacts the ribs enough to break one (including coughing) could have caused some form of lung damage. That needs to be checked before diving again. The impact of pressure changes on any damage in the lungs is not to be dismissed lightly.

I have had broken ribs.. on 3 occasions. :blush: I am a slow learner and worse still I have a high pain tolerance! That means relying on "If you can handle the pain of managing the gear" is not an acceptable means of determining suitability to dive.

I have a few questions.

1) Can you be sure you will not risk someone else if you can not perform as an adequate Buddy in an emergency?
2) Can you be sure that you will not risk everybody else's dive holiday if you get in the water and wind up in trouble?
3) Can you be sure you are not compromising your commitments to your family?
4) Can you say that this dive trip is the most important one you will ever take, So important that it is worth risking never diving again?

Let me make it clear. I do not feel I have the right to know your answers. I would feel I had the right to know the answers to the first two if I was going to be diving from the same boat as you.

 

[pdhenry]

DAN observes the increased rick of DCI due to the healing bone having altered blood flow which may not be accounted for in the off gassing models.

DAN Europe - Bone fracture

I broke my clavicle at the beginning of August and dove, cautiously and with most conservative computer settings, in mid-September. I would not have tried it two weeks out.

 

[Diving Dubai]

Just don't bother. Sit out the diving and let yourself heal. I slipped an cracked/broke a rib on a dive holiday in Aug (not sure which as I never bothered with an X Ray given the remedy would be the same) I tried to dive nd push through it... for a day. Not worth it. It was miserable. Even donning and doffing kit in the water didn't help. Not only was it miserable for me but I was ruining my wife's diving In the end I decided to sit out (had I not, they would have made me sit out) the remaining 5 days. A month later I went diving - it was okay until the evening afterwards.

Sorry but you need to heal and rest.

 

[DiverRtNY]

Just spoke with DAN medical. Just a follow up in information from previous posts... it's the 6th rib on left side. It's a non displaced fracture and besides the expected soft tissue inflammation. And with my profession, that is my support of knowing that this isn't an issue of increased pressure or what not being exerted on the lungs (or ribs for that matter) as the pressure is equalized causing no difference as it would be at 1 atm. So DAN stated that besides discomfort caused with the BCD and gear there isn't any adverse issue I need to be concerned about. And DCS is not an issue. He mentioned the most discomfort would most likely come from donning and doffing gear (though that seems to be more subjective). I have geared up and I have twisted turned climbed stairs and layed down and stood up with all gear on. Not saying there isn't any discomfort but nothing outstanding that hasn't been outside of my daily routines. Like mentioned from my profile, I'm in Health care (Respiratory Therapy Supervisor) and in the past week I have transported vents (couple hundred pounds) while pushing stretchers, performed at least 3 rounds of chest compressions on 4 separate occasions, and moved a 500 lb piano (not the norm but I had to do it). The discomfort is just that. If I was dealing with a fracture on the floating rib or 11 rib, this would be a different story (I have fractured those twice during weightlifting days). Discomfort/movement with those ribs is much more acute and severely limits range of motion. It's a point worth taking as far as bringing up my family and my dive buddy but comparing myself (being physically/ athletically active year round with a great bill of health) compared to some other divers I have seen on boats (morbidly obese who rely on a dive buddy on the boat to help them donn and doff their own gear, struggle to bend over to fin up and look to me to be a heart beat away from a massive MI, or the a$$ hat who is hungover ready to dive (that was me at one point but no more... and I refer to myself as also being an a$$ hat in that circumstance because I was), I feel I am much more equipped to being a safe diver and a dive buddy. It's not my ideal diving but by no means do I feel I will be placing myself or my family/dive buddy in danger and knowing, thanks to DAN medical, that there isn't any contraindications to diving (specifically) and the assumptions that myself and others have voiced in this thread involving pressure causing pneumos and DCS is all here-say. I will take the dives moment by moment and assess my capabilities and tolerance as I go. I'll post a reply in regards to how this diving goes having this form of injury. Lets just say I will be postponing the 130ft wreck dive for later in the week, if at all. Maybe not just for the injury reason but I might rather have a 70 minute dive at 40ft than an 8 minute dive on a wreck... If my tone sounds aggressive, it isn't intended.

 

[Neilwood]

Glad to hear you have got the all clear to dive - to my mind it is certainly worth checking with those most qualified to advise (DAN).

I don't think anyone was posting to stop you diving but just to make you (and anyone that does a search for rib injuries in the future) aware of the (potential) issues that might arise (most of which have been covered by DAN).

Good diving!

 

[scubadada]

I've dived with a broken rib twice, 1997 and 2014. In 2014, I dived the day I broke the rib. No harm done, I'm here to talk about it. I can't believe all the very conservative advice given by divers that know nothing about it. Perhaps it's my age, folks have become much more conservative with time. Perhaps it's the litigious society we live in, I'm for personal responsibility. By the way, I'm a physician.

 

[ScubaMarc]

I dove with a broken rib; all I can say is I had a severe black and blue and after a few dives it dramatically dissipated. I think it was from the dives, my black and blue went away much faster than expected

 

[scubadada]

My broken ribs certainly did not hurt more during diving than on the surface, probably less, my movement was probably less also.

 

[ibj40]

On a dive trip, years ago, I slipped in a bathtub that was equipped with handicap-assistance rails. My right chest hit square on the end of one of the railings. Over the next four days, I did three two-tank dives, and 18 holes of golf. On the way to a two-day stop over, my ribs began to feel uncomfortable on the flight, so went to the local emergency room to get checked out. I had two clearly broken ribs, and a couple of them with shadows that could not be determined to be broken or not. The attending physician also said that I might have also punctured my lung (although when I informed him what I had been doing over the past several days, he retracted that diagnosis).

Not saying I recommend it, but you can survive it (as pointed out above), but be ready for your body to let you know when enough is enough.

Good Luck!