sdiver68
Guest
Lots of personal attacks on this board, which is a shame. If you really want to ensure the safety of all divers, you should probably require abdominal ultrasounds to check for abdominal aneurysms, chest CTs to check for blebs that could lead to a spontaneous pneumothorax, and of course an echocardiogram to ensure they don't have an undiagnosed cardiomyopathy. They probably all kill more divers than asthma or asthma like conditions.
You should have no problem with a diver who undestands their own medical history, determines that scuba diving puts them at no greater risk than anyone else (which in my case is true, you can have a copy of my pulmonary function tests), and gets appropriate medical checkups. You are not (likely) a physician, so stop pretending like this puts you and the rest of your students at risk when you don't know any of the details. It is irresponsible at best.
If you are a ticking time bomb and you know it, you should be disclosing this. If you happen to raise a false alarm on some stupid point on a form that has already been okay'd with a diving specialist, what's the point of getting in to a heated debate with some dive op who doesn't have any medical training and doesn't understand? It has happened to me many times
before, even with a note. I am not advertising that anyone should lie, I just mentioned that under my specific set of circumstances I do not disclose that I get wheezy around my uncles cats because it has nothing to do with diving and simply overlaps with other conditions they are trying to screen for.
Just because it's the Internet doesn't mean you should go running around putting other people down because you may disagree with them. Why can't we just get along?
Fully endorse this post, except those labeling non-disclosers (new word) as liars are themselves lying.
BTW, do you know how DAN and other specialists are coming to the conclusion that the term 'Asthma' is way too broad to contraindicate diving? Because many asthmatics have been diving for years with no statistical evidence of higher risk. Because many people grow out of childhood asthma, or at least go from a higher severity level to a low one with age. Because modern drugs can counteract all the symptoms of Asthma.
The ONLY thing you owe to the diving community is to be properly cleared by a Dr. who understands your personal situation and diving physiology.