Immersion Pulmonary Edema in dive accidents

[DandyDon]

---

---

A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

The discussion of IPE has been split off from a thread in the Accidents and Incidents forum in order to allow that thread to remain on topic and still permit a full discussion of the incidence of IPE in dive accidents in general.

---

When Schock surfaced, he told his team partner - who was with him during the training - that he couldn’t breath, Wright wrote.Schock’s partner immediately tried to give him his own respirator, “but under the stress and duress of the situation, Officer Schock pushed away the apparatus and went back under water,” Wright wrote.

It sounds like a possible Pulmonary edema - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia case.

 

[Jax]

Okay . . . Damnit . . . if this was Immersion Pulmonary Edema, then we have a LOT of teaching to do!!!!

 

[DandyDon]

Okay . . . Damnit . . . if this was Immersion Pulmonary Edema, then we have a LOT of teaching to do!!!!

Excuse me?

 

[Jax]

Okay . . . Damnit . . . if this was Immersion Pulmonary Edema, then we have a LOT of teaching to do!!!!

Excuse me?

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ba...ary-edema-ipe-unknown-cause-known-killer.html

 

[InTheDrink]

First thing I said when I had my PE hit on surfacing was 'I can't breathe'. I tried to shout it. It was barely audible. I knew that a key thing I need to do was to let people know what the problem was before I couldn't speak anymore. Someone offering me a reg would have been exactly no use at all.

Sounds like could be a PE hit to me but would be good to have more information. Prayers to his loved ones.

John

 

[Ayisha]

My first thought was IPE as well. It doesn't matter if it's a newbie or not (which he wasn't). We aren't taught about Immersion Pulmonary Edema and we need to increase the awareness of the affliction and how to recognize it and what to do about it.

I was asked by the Ontario Underwater Council to write an article on IPE and it has been completed and will be published in the January/February issue of Ontario Diver. I'll post a link once it's published, hopefully soon. I did the most exhaustive research I could and tried to cut through all the medicalese and made it as comprehensive and understandable as I could (in spite of a fair bit not being known about it) so we can try to understand it, prevent it and/or nip it in the bud.

 

[Hatul]

By the way if you use acronyms, it's better to use IPE for this as PE usually refers to pulmonary embolism in medical jargon.

Adam

 

[Thalassamania]

IPE seems to be becoming the diagnosis de jure, "It is not clear what happened so it must be IPE!"

Reminds me of my parasitology class, every week, everyone had caught a different parasite, everyone in the class lost a sizable amount of weight.

 

[Thalassamania]

	Title: Immersion pulmonary oedema.
	Author: Mitchell, S
	Abstract: Pulmonary oedema of immersion is a rare complication of scuba diving. A case and brief discussion of the differential diagnosis and pathophysiology are presented. Onset of symptoms typically occurs during the dive, and is characterized by dyspnoea, cough and frothy sputum. Spontaneous recovery frequently occurs once the diver leaves the water. If investigated, the findings are of hypoxaemia and chest X-ray changes typical of pulmonary oedema. The differential diagnosis includes decompression illness, pulmonary barotrauma, near drowning, salt water aspiration syndrome and non-diving causes of pulmonary oedema. The condition may be precipitated by the increase in pulmonary capillary hydrostatic pressure that occurs on immersion, coupled with the imposition of a pressure gradient between mouth pressures and hydrostatic pressure at the chest in the upright diver, and the imposition of more negative intra-alveolar pressures during breathing of a denser gas or from a poorly tuned regulator. Divers with heart disease, hypertension, or taking negative inotropic agents may be at greater risk.

Link: Immersion pulmonary oedema.

 

[Jax]

I know that most definitions say that IPE is "rare", but all these recent articles and studies seem to be questioning that.

Both of the last two issue of Divers' Alert Mag had IPE articles / stories.