My friend just got her OW and she's been diagnosed with DCS

[Bubbletrubble]

It wouldn't hurt to ask, but even in the US many Insts do not bother. I asked about this on a thread once and some do, some don't. It's free, but the Inst has to file for it - and I just have a hunch that this Op doesn't do any more than required.

I have to agree with you on that one. It's a shame. Could have saved the student a lot of money with minimal up-front work.

 

[DandyDon]

Well, she may well still be covered by her regular medical insurance. Some do; some don't. And the trip insurance I use includes $100K for medical, $1M for evacuation including scuba as long as I don't go below 130 ft. Even a resort diver is covered as long as with a DM. If I ever have a claim, DAN and TravelSafe can split the first $200K.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

It is not agreement between Dan and PADI. Dan offers this insurance to every ow student in every US instructors class. We can go on line and in about 5 minutes sign them up. That does not mean it can be done in Mexico. The instructor would need to check that. But with the shortcuts this place took I doubt they would.

I would also never rely on trip advisor as anyone including the resort or operator could go on and post reviews. As for here there is nothing wrong with posting a FACTUAL review of an experience. What this has resulted in with me anyway is looking at every Cancun op with some degree of trepidation since we don't know which one was the one that allowed this to take place. There was ALWAYS another option. Do the dives right and according to standards even if it meant disappointing someone or charging extra. But once again we have an op getting away with putting divers in danger and it's no big deal. Just wonderful. Maybe the next diver they take shortcuts with will be in the passings forum.

 

[jar546]

"Poorly run class" is an understatement. This was a joke. The shop violated numerous standards, was - in my opinion - negligent, unprofessional, and unethical. The point about it just being the way things are in that region, is why they are that way. No one with balls enough to make regular reports to the certifying agencies. Accepting wrongs and excusing them as just the way things are does not in any way make them right.

Absolutely agree and the last sentence can be applied to just about any profession.

To make a short list we have poor or no understanding of what proper buddy procedures are. With new divers this is mostly the fault of poor instruction and instructional practices.

And this statement is the end all correct, truth to the fight about which agency is better. It all comes down to the instructor and poor instruction is what gives agencies a bad name.

Here we have another instructor reinforcing poor procedures and even modeling them! But the worst part is I bet it's not the first time. Unless you guys were his very first students he's done this before and got away with it because no one filed a report and more importantly followed up on it. If one was filed the agency may have said bad boy, don;t do that again. And that was the end of it. Can I suggest you file a report............

Agree, something that rarely, if ever happens.

No one wants to see any good instructor or shop lose. But the bad ones should be driven out of business.

There is a difference between working in an industry and working in a profession. In this case, it is instructors like the one in the OP that does not allow the transition from industry to profession.

Now that I am working on a goal and have received training from different organizations, I can see the difference is not the material and not the standard but the instructor. The "industry" needs to start policing itself by utilizing the methods of reporting provided by the training organizations.

Some people just need a wakeup call.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Not sure if this is mentioned yet, if at this point padi is aware of this type of instruction, either your aow, or your freinds ow will not be legit, or both so in all you now will loose your cert and money.

The other is how much did you two have to drink, and sleep, or even just her. just like they say do not drink the water, how much actual water were you drinking. was there any elevation you went to during your stay.

I get all the of dive profile, just wonder of other related things that can induce it.


And I can clearly say I have been in some sort of bent way, the pain was not enough for me to hit the chamber. I would go for a dive and a long shallow safety and then slowly come up to surface.

So if she is not going to chamber, just take her for a dive, and see how she feels in the next few days. And here in the good ole USA there is no law that says you can not go scubadiving without being certified, or how deep you can go.

Any ways when I do multiple dives in tropic water I will do a shallow shore dive in the middle of the dives, usually after the dive day is over.

Happy Diving

 

[Karibelle]

Not sure if this is mentioned yet, if at this point padi is aware of this type of instruction, either your aow, or your freinds ow will not be legit, or both so in all you now will loose your cert and money.

That is not necessarily true. That is the sort of misinformation that keeps people from talking to PADI about incidents; their fear of being stripped of their certification.

kari

 

[boulderjohn]

I asked the dive shop about that. I said that I was surprised that since she was at the surface for five minutes, that he didn't go to the surface. The shop said they weren't sure, but the instructors dive all day and in rescue training they teach that it's better to have one casualty, than two. So, the message there is that if the instructor had surfaced with her or after her, then he might have compromised his own safety and both of them would have been in trouble.

That's pure BS. Yes, you are taught not to make two victims, but there was nothing remotely dangerous in his going to the surface with her from that depth. there was no threat to his safety.

Thank you for your input. She informed me today that she doesn't want to post anything more about her. I doubt that she would cooperate in disclosing anything at this point. Basically, she doesn't want to get the shop in trouble and feels bad about the whole thing.

She should not be worried about the shop getting into trouble. She should be worried instead about the next victim (Or student, whichever name you prefer) getting into trouble and perhaps dying.

@DandyDon: During my OW training, I did not personally sign up or pay for DAN diving insurance. However, I was informed by my instructor that I was covered by DAN for any incident which occurred during OW training.

As Jim said, DAN does cover OW students for free during their training, but only if they sign up for it. I have signed up hundreds of OW students for this insurance, and not a single student has declined it. The fact that she declined it is curious. Why on earth would one turn down free insurance? It makes me wonder if she was offered the free insurance option at all.

SUMMARY: There were a host of standards violations in this incident. Most of these were certainly due to the shop not having enough resources available to do the job safely. That is the shop's fault, though. They can chose to hire more instructors--I assure you there are many around looking for the opportunity. The shop was thus intentionally cutting corners to help themselves financially. A shop that puts its customers and students at risk in order to squeeze out a little more profit is not a shop that anyone should do business with.

And please do report this to PADI. The violations in this story are significant, and I am sure they will act in some way. That is why the shop is so eager to get on your good side. You will not lose your certifications for making this report.

 

[dmoore19]

The only reason I bring this up is if the DCS hit was during training maybe she would be covered by Dan. I don't know about in Cancun. I don't know about other shops either but when I did my training the students in the group were covered by Dan Insurance during the pool and certification dives. I thought it was a standard for PADI OW training, maybe not?

I said this in post #20. If you have talked to Dan did you ask about this? I hope so. it may save you some money.

 

[boulderjohn]

I said this in post #20. If you have talked to Dan did you ask about this? I hope so. it may save you some money.

The only reason I bring this up is if the DCS hit was during training maybe she would be covered by Dan. I don't know about in Cancun. I don't know about other shops either but when I did my training the students in the group were covered by Dan Insurance during the pool and certification dives. I thought it was a standard for PADI OW training, maybe not?

Just a reminder that, as it has been said several times now, DAN provides free insurance for students, but you have to sign up for it. It is not automatic.

As you can see, she chose not to be covered.

I use DAN and recommended it to her, but she decided not to join.

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

And I can clearly say I have been in some sort of bent way, the pain was not enough for me to hit the chamber. I would go for a dive and a long shallow safety and then slowly come up to surface.

So if she is not going to chamber, just take her for a dive, and see how she feels in the next few days.

This may be your own practice, but it's extremely risky and is certainly not standard of care for decompression illness of any kind. It's also entirely imprudent and reckless to recommend that someone else do it, especially when the particulars of the case are so unclear.