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- I'm a Fish!
OK - well, for lack of any actual evidence to the contrary, I'm forced to discount your claim accordingly.
There is no lack of evidence - it's a documented court case and is well known to all who participated, including myself, so your statement of lack of any actual evidence is totally incorrect. It's strictly a case of you not having the authority and/or credentials to get it. It's amazing that on one hand you have an issue with medical confidentially and then turn around around and want me to violate a court order AND HIPPA to give you information. I suggest you contact your local bar association to find out what information you can get on similar cases.
The point is that the medical statements are required to take a class. They do contain valuable information for the instructor and can protect him/her as well as many others if there is an incident. As to why the records must be held after the student is certified, even if they never again deal with that instructor and/or dive center - it's because if there is an incident years after, the lawyers can still come after the original instructor/dive center and anyone involved in any way with the plaintiff's training. I've been told that the records must be kept for a minimum of 7 years, but this can change from state to state. If the student is a minor, then the records must be kept for 7 years from the time they reach legal age. In the case of a 10 year old student, this means a total of at least 17 years!
I agree with you totally that alot has to do with legal and insurance issues - no argument there. However there are many times where an MD has just skimmed the form and signed off the student as cleared when in fact there is a dangerous existing condition. This is why the instructor must have knowledge of the various conditions and possible consequences and if they do not, they should call either DAN or another source which can give the correct information. The student who was 1 month pregnant was cleared by her physician. If I just took the MD's clearance as the ultimate authority and let her continue the class, and then the baby was born totally disabled - I could be in deep trouble. The medical statement informed me she was pregnant. It was the only way I found out even though I went over the medical statement in class. She didn't tell me, but fortunately put it on the form. Thus is serves several purposes - informs the instructor of potential medical problems which may need to be looked into closer as well for the legal/insurance issues we all love.
If you have such a problem with the medical form, then why don't you start a campaign to have it eliminated or at least changed to where you feel comfortable with it. That could produce a much more positive result for you than just arguing about it here where nothing will change. You'll continue to hate em, I'll continue to use them for the safety of my students and the lawyers/insurance companies will continue to use them to screw all of us.
Take care,
George