My friend took a bad hit.

[Scubakevdm]

My friend took a bad hit today. He has been out of the water the entire summer after taking a hit in Fiji. He got medical clearance to dive again back in July, but for a number of reasons didn't dive again until today. He is a very experienced, very good diver.
He planned the dive at 60' for 30 minutes on a 40% O2 mix just to be safe. The dive went like any other, and all I really thought about was how great it was to have Paul back in the water. At 30 mins he turned to me, signaled time and we started our ascent.
We went ultra slow, just to be safe. I'll upload my profile when I get home and post the exact #'s, but it was way less than 30'/min. As we ascended past 25' he motioned for me to come closer and signaled that he was having trouble. I swam over to him and asked "Okay?" He shook his head no. I grabbed hold of him by the BC, mostly to reassure him that I was nearby. We took a long hang at about 22'. Four minutes into the hang he signaled to continue the ascent and started opening and closing his hands like he was having numbness. I noticed that he was negative, and had to add air to my BC to ascend and still hold on to him. I was wondering why he didn't adjust his bouyancy. I kept asking him "Okay?" and he kept shaking his head "No". Anyway, we slowly made our way to the surface. Finally, we broach. I let go of him, inflated my BC, and as I removed my reg to ask what was wrong, he sank. I grabbed him again and I inflated his BC. He lay there face down and motionless. I asked him if he was okay again mostly to see if he was even conscious and again, he shook his head "no". Finally it dawned on me, he was paralyzed.
I signaled trouble to the boat which was on its way anyway. We pulled him out of the water and had him on O2 in less than 2 minutes. We recalled the rest of the divers. His symptoms improved with O2. By the time they were loading him into the ambulance, 46 minutes after we surfaced he had regained sensation in his hands and feet. He's in the chamber right now.

 

[Avalanche]

Thats some account, thanks for sharing it. He was fortunate to have a dive buddy like you to keep him alive. One of the most important things that I picked up from this was that he was able to turn to you to motion ascent. Which means that you were close by and that you were well aware of him. Again, thanks for re-inforcing the importance of proximity when buddy diving.

 

[mweitz]

Wish him a speedy recovery from the board. GREAT job keeping him as safe as he could possibly be given the circumstances! I can't even imagine how you are feeling right now. Try to take it easy and not overthink it today.

Mark

 

[wedivebc]

Wow! Good thing you were there. I wish Paul a speedy recovery.
Keep us posted.

 

[headhunter]

Be sure to tell your friend that all of our thoughts and prayers are with him for a speedy recovery.

It will be interesting to see your profile info when you post it.

Unfortunately, it sounds like your friend might have to hang up his fins.

I'm glad he had an aware buddy like yourself to assist him.

Keep us posted on his condition.

Christian

 

[ShakaZulu]

Wow, sad to hear............good job.

 

[Dryglove]

Great job on your part getting him to the surface and alerting the boat. Keep us up to date on what they find out. Pass on our best wishes to your friend. I hope he improves and does ok.

 

[mccabejc]

Wow. As a new diver, reports like this are very sobering. Can someone explain the mechanism whereby once you suffer a bad DCS hit, you become much more susceptible to it in the future, even if you are making very conservative dives? I've seen a number of reports like this and it's kinda scary.

 

[Tobagoman]

Wow. As a new diver, reports like this are very sobering. Can someone explain the mechanism whereby once you suffer a bad DCS hit, you become much more susceptible to it in the future, even if you are making very conservative dives? I've seen a number of reports like this and it's kinda scary.

I don't think the medical community understands the link or even if statistics support such a link. It may be more along the lines that a person's physiology is more succeptible to DCS than that of another.

I hope Paul makes a full recovery, but I must agree, it may be time to hang up his fins.

 

[BigJetDriver]

Wow. As a new diver, reports like this are very sobering. Can someone explain the mechanism whereby once you suffer a bad DCS hit, you become much more susceptible to it in the future, even if you are making very conservative dives? I've seen a number of reports like this and it's kinda scary.

Jim, et al,

Sadly, even though we know a lot about decompressiona and DCS, there is a lot that we still don't know!

I do not mean to scare anyone, but we all have to recognize that there is always a probability of risk in diving. It is extremely low to start with, and with proper procedure, we try to keep it that way!

Despite that, there are a lot of variables involved, and sometimes those variables combine in unpredictable ways. We then wind up with a diver who receives an "un-expected" hit. (We try to avoid the term "un-deserved" because that suggests that there might be suspicion that it is "deserved".)

It may be that there is something in this diver's physiological make-up that is the root cause of both occurrences. One of our writers on this board, Detroit DIver, was hit because he had a PFO, which he later had resolved through surgery. There many possibilities. This will indeed be a case study.

I am not making light of the man's situation. I hope he will be OK and recover fully after the chamber ride.

It is important to realize, however, that if we hydrate properly pre-dive, watch our ascent rates and our limits, do our stops properly, and avoid heavy post-dive exercize, we will have less risk than we assume every day driving to and from work.

Cheers!