Is it worth the trouble and expense to carry emergency oxygen?

[icechip]

I would say yes it is worth any hassle to have O2 ready. In our dive group, we have some ambulance EMTs with connections at the local hospital, should we need but the LDS actually fills my emergency cylinder.

 

[Wookie]

Wookie, I understand you best when you provide stories to illustrate your point.

My philosophy regarding O2 developed over time. When I first became captain, not owner, the boat rules were that if anyone went on O2, they went to the chamber and the boat went home. This is a real disincentive to using O2. After I bought the boat, and received a little education, I came to understand that O2 is first aid, like a band aid, and if I gave someone a band aid I didn’t give them stitches, so if I gave them O2, there was no reason to immediately evacuate them, and the advantage was that if they remarkably improved while on O2, that was pretty good indication that someone was actually bent. We learned to rely on our skills performing a neurological exam instead of just “if you put them on O2 you have to evacuate them”. We also had plenty of bends cases in those years. Average 8 per year. That’s when I decided to provide nitrox and nitrox training included in the cost of the trip. After that, the O2 kits got pulled out to get dusted or for training or maintenance.

 

[rjack321]

I understand the idea behind periodically using the O2 for training and getting the bottle hydroed. But you don't have to do that - once you find a source just fill it and store it. Perhaps put the reg on the bottle to double check the pressure annually.

O2 is not only (sometimes but not always) time critical for DCS, but if anyone in your group ever experiences IPE immediate O2 may be the difference between life or death.

One alternative you might not have investigated is hitting up one of your local home filling tech divers for a fill. I would do it for "nothing" (aka a beer in my garage) - which avoids any commercial interactions.

 

[Wookie]

I understand the idea behind periodically using the O2 for training and getting the bottle hydroed. But you don't have to do that - once you find a source just fill it and store it. Perhaps put the reg on the bottle to double check the pressure annually.

O2 is not only (sometimes but not always) time critical for DCS, but if anyone in your group ever experiences IPE immediate O2 may be the difference between life or death.

One alternative you might not have investigated is hitting up one of your local home filling tech divers for a fill. I would do it for "nothing" (aka a beer in my garage) - which avoids any commercial interactions.

As would I, and I have the fill adapters and booster to make it happen.

 

[tbone1004]

said it in the other thread, but will reiterate here and expound a bit.

I think you have 4.5 options. These are in no particular order

1. You can take AN without the DP, so if you have a local instructor, you can take just the AN portion then only use scuba tanks and regulators. Keep an LPI on it and get a RescuEAN. Happy days.
2. You can just transfill from your welding bottles into a scuba or medical tank.
2.5 Find a tech diver local ish with a booster. Buy an adapter for yoke to pin index, and happy days. Bring a 6 pack of beer, O2 is cheap.
3. You can buy bottles of ABO and convert your regulators to CGA540
4. You can find a used invacare homefill o2 concentrator and compressor which will allow you to fill your own O2 bottles


#3 is going to be the cheapest by far. $20 for a medical regulator *provided you don't need the DISS port for a demand valve or MTV100*
#4 is going to be the lowest long term if you consume a lot of oxygen every year, but probably the highest up front investment
#2 is fine, but I think it's pointless if you can get ABO in reasonable sized bottles from the gas supplier
#1 is comparably as expensive as #4, but if you want to keep it in scuba tanks and don't want to find a Homefill and fill yourself, then it's not a bad idea.

I have a Homefill in my garage, as well as a Haskel with ABO in my garage. If you were local ish, I'd fill for the cost of a beer in the garage. To anyone reading this in the upstate SC ish area, doors open. I ALWAYS carry O2 though. Any time I'm diving, I always have it with me....

 

[AfterDark]

I guess it depends on the kind of diving one does; for me no, for others I know a big yes. When I've gone on charters I check if they have O2, that's the only time I'd need it. Ninety nine percent of my diving these days is above 50FSW and never near NDL. When I did need it doing air only deco it wasn't available from any LDS I knew.

These commercials I see on TV for medical O2 delivered to your door won't help you?

 

[Jcp2]

O2 isn’t just for DCS to mobilize the nitrogen. It could also be useful as an extension to a first aid kit for things that are not DCS related that an older demographic of divers are more susceptible to. Angina, tingling of arm, droopy face, leg cramping, shortness of breath, persistent cough, all potential symptoms of a heart attack, stroke, transient ischemic attack, pulmonary embolism, intermittent claudication etc. all can be helped by oxygen until you can make it to more qualified aid. It’s along the lines of an automatic defibrillator or tourniquet/massive bleed kit, not just for the bends.

 

[2airishuman]

O2 isn’t just for DCS to mobilize the nitrogen. It could also be useful as an extension to a first aid kit for things that are not DCS related that an older demographic of divers are more susceptible to. Angina, tingling of arm, droopy face, leg cramping, shortness of breath, persistent cough, all potential symptoms of a heart attack, stroke, transient ischemic attack, pulmonary embolism, intermittent claudication etc. all can be helped by oxygen until you can make it to more qualified aid. It’s along the lines of an automatic defibrillator or tourniquet/massive bleed kit, not just for the bends.

In the 1940s it was thought to be a miracle drug with no contraindications. Modern medicine is somewhat more circumspect but I agree that there are a wide range of first aid situations where it can do no harm and may well make a difference.

One further step into a remote area and there is a school of thought that you should be able to start an IV and have the materials on hand as diarrhea kills more otherwise healthy people worldwide than most other things

 

[2airishuman]

These commercials I see on TV for medical O2 delivered to your door won't help you?

My TV only gets political ads and ones for erectile dysfunction treatments and arthritis and diabetes remedies

 

[tbone1004]

These commercials I see on TV for medical O2 delivered to your door won't help you?

still need a prescription for it, and I imagine they want some kind of subscription.