Mike's DCS And Some Lessons Learned

[victorzamora]

Mike, thanks for posting this. As for being sensitive to Mike and Linda, I think I'll say the most offensive thing that can be said: I wish he would've gone on Oxygen sooner, though there's no guarantee it would've done much. I mean absolutely no offense in saying that, I just meant that, honestly, there's not much that can be said besides "That sucks." Learning from this is a big deal. Your 4 takeaways described my takeaways very well. The point about acclimitization was something I had always wondered about but never got any decisive evidence on. I wish this information could be passed along to dive ops everywhere. My wife and I had a few warm-up dives on our last trip, but on her first dive trip it was straight to 80ft on Day 1.

Steve, many Suunto computers are typically considered obscenely conservative. I'm wondering which one he was diving. I'd like to see Katy's profile if Mike's can't be found. It would be interesting

Mike, one more point: There was a thread debating "deserved" vs "undeserved" hits. The thread discussed (amongst other things) the nature of what to call hits like this. Clearly the vendictive meaning of "deserved" isn't what is meant, and clearly the subtext of understanding DCS beyond what we do isn't meant in "undeserved".....but the point to take is that people get bent while others don't, even if all deco algorithms say you're fine and other buddies are on that dive with you.

One more thought: How tired were y'all and/or was he the morning of the dive? How well hydrated was he the morning of the dive? I'm not saying alcohol had any involvement, but how much beer/soda did he have the night before? Carbonation can severely reduce hydration levels. It's easy to try to avoid "Montezuma's Revenge" by replacing water in your diet.

Edit: One more thing: I'm never glad to see ANYTHING in the A&I section, but I'm glad that there's good, detailed information in one. It's hard to learn from things when people are being secretive.

 

[Akimbo]

The Acclimatization article has been in the back of mind since reading it this summer. Here is a link:

Alert Diver | Acclimatization

 

[GrumpyOldGuy]

That's a scary story. I have lost count of the times I have dived and not checked on emergency prep at a dive op other than "do you have oxygen" type of questions. As with many guys, I also tend to discount initial symptom and think they will go away if I tough it out like a man.

Sounding more like 2 strikes to me now.

 

[Insta-Gator]

Given the description of the journey to the resort, my first reaction was dehydration, but obviously that's speculation on my part.

Hope Mike is doing better. Best wishes for a complete recovery.

Thanks for clearing up my misunderstanding that the injured Mike is not you but your friend, also named Mike.

(Still doesn't earn you a pass in the PUB, my friend )

 

[brnt999]

I am sorry for the difficulties you have been through and hope your recovery continues.

I have a question for the experts out there. The writer says after the first dive:

"On the windy and choppy 10-minute ride back to the dock, Mike sat uncomfortably on the floor, his tall frame twisted to fit between a bench and the side of the boat. Stepping out onto the dock, he said he felt kind of “funny”, with the skin on the right side of his back and shoulder feeling numb. "

I am currently taking the on-line training course with Padi for AOW, and it talks about pre-disposing factors that can contribute to DCS. Among the ten listed are age, injury or illness, dehydration, alcohol, cold water, and hot showers or baths. The common denominator in these factors is that they affect circulation, and thus how our body diffuses the nitrogen. Is is possible that when he was twisted between the bench and the side of the boat his circulation was disrupted--kind of like when you sit on a leg and it goes to sleep. Is there any research to suggest this type of action could affect how nitrogen is eliminated?

 

[TSandM]

Given that he had bubbles in the spinal cord, I doubt the position in the panga made any difference.

 

[Steve_C]

If the position in the panga was uncomfortable and required some bracing and use of muscles, natural if the boat is bouncing around, that might be the same as physical exertion immediately post dive which can be a negative factor.

 

[FM1520]

FYI - Mike and his wife Linda will visit here to read your thoughts and answer any questions you may have. Your kindness will be appreciated.


Our dive was just as described: The temperature was 79 degrees, the vis was about 100 feet, with lots of beautiful coral and small fish. We started at 50 feet, swam out along a long coral finger, and then turned left and swam over a number of parallel coral fingers, averaging about 70 feet with a maximum of a bit over 90 feet in one or two spots. Mike, a conservative diver, wore both a Suunto and a Tusa computer. We completed the dive, ascended slowly, completed our safety stops, and were back in the boat with a total dive time of 41 minutes. No one had exceeded their NDLs or generated any computer alarms.

---------- Post added December 19th, 2013 at 08:08 AM ----------

Addendum: Mike sold his computers and does not have his profile, but I will try to get the profile of my wife's computer and post it - They would be nearly identical.

You didn't mention if he was using air or NITROX - assuming air, 70' average depth and 41 min bottom time that does exceed min deco limits (NDL). It will be interesting what the actual average depth, max depth and bottom were according to your wife's computer. Not saying its the cause but, in my opinion, it's not a "conservative" profile. If he was on 32% then it would be within NDL.

 

[Mike Boswell]

We were all breathing air.

For those who want to see a dive profile, here is the one from my wife Katy's Suunto Cobra computer. Minutes are along the left vertical axis, and each column shows the depth at ten-second intervals. As an example, at time 10 minutes, thirty seconds, the depth is 68 feet.

The computer gives the average depth as 63 feet. If you average all the numbers in the table you get 63.6 feet.

Dive Profile, Katy Boswell - March 3, 2013 Xcalak - "Santa Rosa"
Min/Sec	0	10	20	30	40	50
0	0	9	10	12	16	19
1	23	28	34	40	47	53
2	57	59	58	58	57	60
3	62	61	61	61	61	61
4	61	61	62	64	65	64
5	62	63	64	65	65	65
6	65	66	66	66	66	66
7	65	67	67	67	66	66
8	67	67	68	68	68	67
9	66	66	67	67	68	68
10	69	68	68	68	65	65
11	63	62	63	63	64	67
12	67	66	70	72	73	72
13	73	74	76	76	75	74
14	74	74	74	74	75	75
15	78	80	81	81	82	84
16	86	87	87	87	88	88
17	89	89	87	86	86	86
18	88	88	86	87	87	88
19	89	89	89	87	87	87
20	88	89	89	89	87	87
21	89	87	87	87	87	87
22	86	85	83	83	82	81
23	81	80	80	80	79	77
24	76	77	79	81	79	78
25	78	77	76	76	78	78
26	78	77	74	72	71	72
27	72	72	73	75	74	73
28	71	72	74	72	70	70
29	70	70	67	67	67	66
30	64	63	64	64	61	61
31	61	61	60	57	56	62
32	62	60	57	55	54	53
33	52	52	51	48	49	49
34	50	50	50	51	51	52
35	53	55	56	55	54	55
36	55	53	51	49	49	46
37	43	38	34	30	26	22
38	16	19	19	17	19	19
39	19	17	17	19	18	18
40	17	20	20	16	19	21
41	19	14	14	0

 

[FM1520]

Mike, 41 min @ 61' average is certainately within NDL and I don't see anything in these numbers out the ordinary. Looks like the ascent started at 55, less than 30' per min to the 15' safety stop and held that +/- 4' for 3 min - pretty vanilia. Probably never find a smoking gun, likely several small things combinded, like staking nickles.