Is it true that DCS can happen to anyone, regardless of prevention?

[Spanocha]

So make sure you've got good control of your buoyancy, together with gas management and planning, and sound buddy awareness & practice skills. . .

One diagnostic can help you tell if that vague post-dive ache is due to a "muscle strain" or onset of DCS symptoms: back on the surface, breath pure oxygen. If the pain is alleviated somewhat, then it's probably DCS related --if not then it may just be a muscle strain. In either case I would still elect to go the Hyperbaric Chamber and get a Physcians' evaluation, diagnoses & treatment if needed. . .

Oh, I see...10% of those who went to the chamber for DCS did not do anything wrong in their dive, or at least they could not think of anything that could have gone wrong to have caused them to get bent.

That stat seems a bit alarming.

 

[Kevrumbo]

I did not completely understand the chart you posted. Some of the items seem to be "reasons" why someone suffered DCS (i.e. regulator trouble, or buddy problem) and the other items seem to reflect the exhibited "symptoms" of DCS.

At any rate, although it is helpful to know that the pure oxygen will (temporarily) alleviate DCS pain, it does not seem entirely practical. It seems like that is what ER doctors would do to possibly rule out DCS. I don't have an oxygen tank.

These are simply difficult or perplex situations & circumstances in which the victim found himself in during the dive, prior to and upon presenting to the Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber for evaluation of Decompression Sickness. . .

 

[TSandM]

It's hard, when you are new to diving, to know what your body is telling you. I remember driving home from one of my early dives with such a bad pain in my right shoulder that I really began to worry that I was bent. I didn't say anything to my husband until the next day, and then I told him, "Wow, I'm sure glad my shoulder doesn't hurt today. I was beginning to worry I was bent!" And he blew up at me for not having said anything the night before.

Eventually, I learned what is likely to hurt after diving. Lugging my body weight's worth of gear from the car to the water and back DOES cause things to get sore -- my shoulders and neck are likely to hurt some. If I got bad pain in an elbow or knee, or got vertigo on land, I'd head for the local hospital where there is a chamber, because those are NOT normal post-dive symptoms for me.

In general, if you are not pushing your NDL limits, and your buoyancy control is good, your chances of DCS are very low. One of the reasons new divers should stay shallow and conservative, in my opinion, is that they need to accumulate some data on their likely aches and pains before they go deep enough to run any real DCS risk!

 

[Thalassamania]

As I think carefully about it, most of the folks that I know personally who have had a problem either had a congenital condition or got bent by surfacing and then making a very short, fairly deep, subsequent dive to clear the anchor or some such. Bubble pumping is likely a big unconsidered and under reported phenomena.

 

[Dzscubie]

I just received my certification (yeah!) so I've been reading a lot about diving.

When I came across the fact that DCS can occur regardless of prevention, it bugged me out a little. To top it all off, the symptoms seem to be a bit ambiguous (lacking any clear-cut delineation).

How would I be able to tell a muscle ache from a nitrogen bubble flare-up?

If DCS can occur regardless, how do you dive without any day-after DCS "paranoia"?

Spanocha,

Diving is like life it has its ups and downs and the only thing you can count on is you can’t have a guarantee on anything. Look at all the little things that add up to getting DCS or not getting DCS.
1) Your body condition (and that changes daily)
2) Are you hydrated, what have you drank prior to the dive (beer liquor the night before a lot of coffee before the dive) these dehydrate you
3) How much rest have you had (did you sleep or party with other divers the night before)
4) Is your body tired/fatigued
5) How many dives over the past few days have you made? Did they not go into deco but maybe were just below deco
6) Did you leave from sea level and go home (drive) to a higher altitude (I live at 4 grand above sea level). How long after the last dive
Individualy they may not be much to worry about however you can see a whole lot of little things can contribute to possible getting DCS.
BUT !!!! WAIT !!!! :no This can also be a one in a million shot also. You could dive like this for years and nothing happens at all.
My suggestion, and please understand this is my opinion only, is if you continue to worry about DCS call and talk to DAN. I would encourage you to join DAN anyway and keep their emergency number handy in your dive bag. They have a 24 hour call in number and you can talk to the on duty nurse. She/he will ask for your dive profiles and ask all the necessary questions to evaluate you and will take care of making all of the arraignments needed to get you to the nearest Doctor and into a camber if necessary. Again in my opinion this is the way to calm those fears of DCS, DAN is always there for you.

Now for the disclaimer, I do not and have never worked for DAN. I have been bent (the profile above was my profile) and DAN took care of everything and I’m still diving because of DAN so I guess you can say I’m a believer and enthusiast ( I don’t really like the word fanatic).

Hope this helps.

Shawn

 

[Saturation]

DCS related symptoms [ i.e., what the patient complains of, usually joint pain] smoulder and worsen up to 24 hours after a dive.

Without treatment, most joint bends slowly subsides usually in a week.

Most non-DCS issues often improve once out of the water, or out of your dive gear, so that much relief occurs spontaneously after 24 hours.

When the caregiver can see something, i.e., the signs, like paralysis or frank weakness, its obvious something else has happened related to the dive.

Together, those symptoms and signs, s/s, constitute the core points in diagnosing DCS.

The issue is it DCS or others, such as musculoskeletal or nerve compression issues, e.g. pulled muscles from not being used to weight of tanks or a tight wet suit, respectively. Other s/s can usually be elicited. In muscle issues, usually range of motion or a position can aggravate or settle the pain, whereas in DCS there is often no position that is comfortable, since the pain is being driven by something 'inside.' In nerve compression, it often resolves once the compression is removed, such as when you get the leg drop sitting on a toilet for a long time.

DCS is a risk event, not a black and white, I do this, therefore this will or will not happen. The risk of DCS in a recreational dive annually is about 1-2/100,000 dives [ or population wise, about 1-2/10,000 divers], so for the most part, most divers are bends free for their lifetime in diving. YMMV, but those are the numbers you play the game with, and the game is in your favor. For comparison, your annual risk of death driving a car in the USA is about 1/10,000 drivers.

As a new diver, the easiest way to figure out what your s/s means is to ask your instructor, s/he is your local expert, or call DAN.

 

[Spanocha]

The risk of DCS in a recreational dive annually is about 1-2/100,000 dives [ or population wise, about 1-2/10,000 divers], so for the most part, most divers are bends free for their lifetime in diving. YMMV, but those are the numbers you play the game with, and the game is in your favor. For comparison, your annual risk of death driving a car in the USA is about 1/10,000 drivers.

I believe that is how the issue should be situated, if those statistics are indeed accurate.

 

[Spanocha]

FYI: My original impetus for this query stemmed from incidents surrounding my check-out dives. During my check-out dives, nothing unusual occured at all. In fact, I did not even feel nervous or anxious about anything. I was just excited to finally be diving.

After getting certified, I was driving home and I felt intense pain in my hand and my shoulders were hurting. I also started feeling fatigued aacompanied by headache. I really did not think much about it. When I got home after a two-hour drive, I felt extremely tired and I fell asleep (which is extremely rare for me). Later that evening, I made the mistake of researching DCS and then the "maybes" and "what if's" made their rounds.

The next morning I awoke with a terrible headache and I felt like I had a cold. It was at this point when I made myself more anxious, so I calculated the odds pertaining to my symptoms. Every one of my symptoms were listed in the DCS list of symptoms; however, everyone of my symptoms could be related to an alternative explanation:

Pain in Hands and Shoulder Pain--Carrying my gear for extended distances.

Terrible Headache--Caffeine withdrawals (I had no coffee the day of my second series of dives).

Fatigue--I camped-out the night before and did not sleep well. It was cold all night and I only slept a couple of hours. I also dove, thereby creating exertion.

Cold Symptoms--It rained when I was camping, in combination with the cold weather.

At any rate, I worked myself up and decided to call DAN, just to relieve the doubts. DAN told me that although it is always possible to get DCS, in my case it was extremely unlikely (next to impossible).

So then I just waited everyhting out. I guess it was a good learning experience.

 

[Saturation]

I believe that is how the issue should be situated, if those statistics are indeed accurate.

If you join DAN, among its benefits are a free pdf copy of the annual accident report. You can follow the stats thereafter. You can also buy a copy of the report without joining DAN. There maybe copies of prior reports circulating on the Internet that are 'free'.

Diving Safety

If you don't believe it, consider the annual premium for DCS treatment from DAN's insurance, which is excess insurance, is about $100/year, when considering the risk statistic. As 'money talks' at least DAN's actuarial have faith in those numbers.

 

[Gene_Hobbs]

The DAN Reports are available on their site (or should be by now, I scanned and sent them a LONG time ago) and through Rubicon here

Reports are available from a few other sources as well and we have linked them from our "Diving accident and fatality suggested reading list"