Want your own Hyperbaric Chamber? Its cheap!

[John C. Ratliff]

Building the chamber is pretty simple.

Its the oxygen generator at 98-99% purity and at -60 dewpoint, The high pressure oxygen booster, the back up 50% oxygen 50 % Helium cylinders to conduct a Comex 30 MSW treatment table for the really serious bend treatments, The overboard dumps built in breathing system. BIBS System with a negative bias tracking regulator to avoid vacuum packing the divers lungs on exhale at 30MSW.

The chamber reliable gas analysis O2 CO2 the chamber 3 hour duration C02 scrubbers when it all goes south, the fire deluge, the fogging nozzles or hyperbaric fire extinguisher or bucket of sand and a bucket of water depending on the budget. The fire retardant mattress and the Nomex pants.

The chamber on deck in order to get the diver from arriving at the surface bent back down to 60FSW in the chamber within 3 minutes to resolve most type 1 bends simply on pure oxygen 20 mins on with a 5 minute air break, with the provision to smash the diver and tender/diver medic down to 30 MSW 100FSW super quick should it begin to go south on you with a serious type II bend. A medical lock for the diazepam panicide and for the coffee teas with biscuits locking in for the 5 minute air breaks and for the piss crap vomit locking out.

The written procedures the IPP documents chamber checks and procedures from everything from intubation extubation and the procedures for dealing with the dead.

All this in a remote area? your gonna need someone who knows what to do to help you on this. Iain

'Sounds like you have some experience with chambers. I'd like to note that although "...60 fsw may be a procedure for treating type 1 bends simply on pure oxygen...", some people cannot handle pure oxygen at 60 fsw.

The other caveot is that if the treatment is without anyone else in the chamber, sometimes things can go bad (convulsions, or progressing symptoms, or heart difficulties), it is difficult because you cannot just depressurize to try to treat the person.

SeaRat

 

[Eastwest]

Zip you in a bag like a dry suit design and fill with water , mask and reg encapulated too . Pump the pressure and good to go that with R. and D. it may be so .

 

[Waterwulf]

Zip you in a bag like a dry suit design and fill with water ,

Whoa now! Not till I've been declared ready for "the bag", please! I'll just wait for the evac chopper if you don't mind. Besides, what if the bag breaks like a giant water balloon under pressure? You'd get splattered all over the deck from the explosive decompression. Nah, just hit me up with morphine and call helicopter.

 

[iain/hsm]

'Sounds like you have some experience with chambers. I'd like to note that although "...60 fsw may be a procedure for treating type 1 bends simply on pure oxygen...", some people cannot handle pure oxygen at 60 fsw.

The other caveot is that if the treatment is without anyone else in the chamber, sometimes things can go bad (convulsions, or progressing symptoms, or heart difficulties), it is difficult because you cannot just depressurize to try to treat the person.

SeaRat

Plenty of experience with chambers for many clients over a number of years.
In the event of an OxTox event in the chamber at 60 FSW you simply remove the oxygen BIBS mask and let the patient breathe pure air for 5 minutes then put them back on the mask. It's important to note that chamber wise an OxTox event is quite rare with a reclined patient in the dry at 60FSW breathing oxygen. But It's quite another consideration if you expect the same benign effect at 60 FSW wet at depths finning about in the water column. IWD is the other area of concern here.

To be fair at no point did I advocate using single occupancy chambers hence why I
stated to smash the diver and tender/diver medic down to 30 MSW 100FSW super quick

There is one caveat to my statement above in that the use of a procedure known as SurD02
Surface Decompression using Oxygen where a twin lock chamber is used (never a single man)
With the inner lock at depth 60 FSW and the outer lock at the surface, The diver has 5 minutes from leaving the 30 FSW mark in the water column to arriving back on deck stripping off kit and entering the outer lock, Then closing the door and getting a good seal on the outer door before being blown down to 60 FSW where on arrival at depth the inner doors equalises and you crawl from the outer lock into the inner lock shut the door behind you and go onto the BIBS. The chamber attendant will then bring the outer lock back to the surface where in the event of you throwing a wobbly inside a diver medic can be blown down quickly and easily to greet you. Iain

 

[iain/hsm]

Zip you in a bag like a dry suit design and fill with water , mask and reg encapulated too . Pump the pressure and good to go that with R. and D. it may be so .

No

 

[Eastwest]

Note the title of this post . A straight no is not a valid point of view . Let us pump 6000 psi of air in your next tank hydro is definitely a no . To save a life or limb is a good point of view .

 

[lowwall]

Note the title of this post . A straight no is not a valid point of view . Let us pump 6000 psi of air in your next tank hydro is definitely a no . To save a life or limb is a good point of view .

Sometimes a straight no is a valid point of view. If the risks and costs of a cheap chamber are worse than the alternatives, then go with the alternatives. Given the number of ways a chamber can kill its inhabitants if it's not maintained, staffed and operated correctly, the alternatives have to be pretty bad to be rejected out of hand.

The base alternative is having plenty of O2 and the appropriate equipment to administer it along with an evacuation plan.

The next alternative is IWR (in-water recompression). This requires both equipment and trained personnel to be effective, but the equipment (full face mask, hang bar ?), is much less expensive and training divers to assist is probably a similar level of effort as hyperbaric assistants. Especially since the divers are the potential users so are motivated to learn. The whole concept of IWR comes from groups like sponge, pearl, and coral divers in places and times where chambers were not an option.

I'm not sure what other alternatives there are. Maybe maintaining a small habitat at 9m that can be filled with O2?

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

Zip you in a bag like a dry suit design and fill with water , mask and reg encapulated too . Pump the pressure and good to go that with R. and D. it may be so .

What you're describing would be physiologically similar to in-water recompression. While you wouldn't have the concern about a chamber full of oxygen, you'd be limited in treatment depth, and you wouldn't be able to have anyone in there with the diver should something go wrong. All told, this seems like a lot of logistics and risk for comparatively little benefit.

Best regards,
DDM

 

[scubaozy]

 

[eelpout]

Sounds like you have some experience with chambers. I'd like to note that although "...60 fsw may be a procedure for treating type 1 bends simply on pure oxygen...", some people cannot handle pure oxygen at 60 fsw.

We deal with this issue by giving the patient "Air Breaks". You standard Table 6 start the treatment at 60 fsw and get a 5 minute air breaks after 20 minutes for a total of 3 air breaks before ascending slowly to 30 fsw for the rest of the treatment with with 15 inute air break before each 60 minute O2 segament. I am enclosing a diagmram of the Treatment Table 6.