Trip Report Why I Won't Be Returning to Cozumel-Part 1,2&3
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This is interesting to me because my wife got skin bends in Cozumel. She too had previous cases that were assumed to be rash or wetsuit. When she got a bad case in Cozumel it was obviously not caused by rash or wetsuit. Our dive profile was 2 morning dives a day to 90' and 60' for about 4 days.
I contacted DAN and was told to watch her and if the symptoms improved she would not likely need medical evaluation. As a minimum, I think DAN should have arranged for my wife to get oxygen. We all pay a lot of money to DAN (20 years for me) and I expect them to make arrangements for basic needs rather than spewing off a bunch of phone numbers to call. In my case there was no dive operator on-site (Hotel Cozumel) so no way to grab an oxygen kit.
When I read these stories in the DAN magazine about a diver who was treated perfectly for DCS and was flown across the world on a private jet by DAN, it always makes me wonder if those stories aren't just slightly staged. My one experience in 20 years was less than comforting.
As a result of this experience a few years ago my wife does not want to dive in Cozumel anymore. We also have a friend that had a really bad DCS experience in Cozumel.
SO, our main dive destination is now CAYMAN I$LAND$! They have great resorts, great diving and a very good medical system. My wife broke her ankle on Little Cayman and ended up in the hospital on Cayman Brac. She received excellent and affordable medical care.
I contacted DAN and was told to watch her and if the symptoms improved she would not likely need medical evaluation. As a minimum, I think DAN should have arranged for my wife to get oxygen. We all pay a lot of money to DAN (20 years for me) and I expect them to make arrangements for basic needs rather than spewing off a bunch of phone numbers to call. In my case there was no dive operator on-site (Hotel Cozumel) so no way to grab an oxygen kit.
When I read these stories in the DAN magazine about a diver who was treated perfectly for DCS and was flown across the world on a private jet by DAN, it always makes me wonder if those stories aren't just slightly staged. My one experience in 20 years was less than comforting.
As a result of this experience a few years ago my wife does not want to dive in Cozumel anymore. We also have a friend that had a really bad DCS experience in Cozumel.
SO, our main dive destination is now CAYMAN I$LAND$! They have great resorts, great diving and a very good medical system. My wife broke her ankle on Little Cayman and ended up in the hospital on Cayman Brac. She received excellent and affordable medical care.
dlofting
Contributor
Did the operator you dove with not have oxygen? I'm assuming your wife's symptoms developed sometime after the dive, but could you have contacted them?
As I mentioned, the dive operator is not on-site and does not answer their phone at 1:30 am. The symptoms developed slowly after the dive shop had closed. Regardless, we pay DAN to be just a phone call away. They answered but basically said take an aspirin and you'll feel better in the morning.
I amy be confused, but it sounds to me from reading the story that they gave you correct advice. You disagree with it, but that does not mean they were wrong.
drrich2
Contributor
I suspect the only way they could've arranged for her to get oxygen spontaneously shortly after notice at 1:30 a.m. would be to advise you go to the local hospital emergency room and ask for it. The only other thing they'd seem in a good position to do would be to advocate for the need for it, if the E.R. staff were resistant.
Is there some other chain of events you believe should've taken place?
Yes, Grand Cayman seems to have a good reputation for health care. But as you give in your example, she broke an ankle on Little Cayman, and had to be moved to another island (Cayman Brac) for hospital care. I wonder how full featured the Cayman Brac's hospital capability is (I'm not insinuating anything, I don't know one way or the other)?
My point is, if the rationale was to shift away from Cozumel to somewhere medically 'safer,' does heading to Little Cayman make sense? I would think the medical resources of Cozumel would stack up well for someone who had serious injury or heart attack, for example, on island.
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Dive Paradise is just across the street. But I doubt any Op is going to deliver oxygen to your room at 1am.
Yep, if you don't like the wait & see advice from any source, go to the ER. DAN would have been obliged to pay for it.
You both are certainly entitled to dive wherever you prefer and if she/you are more comfortable in the Caymans, for whatever reason, then that's hard to argue. It does seem a bit unfair to Cozumel though since it seems your annoyance is with DAN. I don't think Coz lacks medical resources, you just weren't directed to them by DAN.
Dive Paradise has been the on-site dive op for Hotel Cozumel since at least the mid-90's. I stayed there in 2005 and used them for all my diving, stayed there 3 or 4 other times since and used them for tank rentals for the shore dive.
I would wager that if you had gone to any of the facilities on the island that have a hyperbaric chamber, even if it was 1:30AM, your wife would have been given O2 straight away. I don't see why you would have been going to the dive op about it; even on site dive ops are not manned at that time of night.
morecowbells
Contributor
When I was in Cozumel in Oct, my friend developed skin bends on her torso around 5 pm. It happened after our first day of diving with a max depth of 90 feet, for only a very short time. She was using Nitrox and she was well within her parameters using her ultra conservative Suunto computer. She called DAN and they advised her to go to Costa Med ASAP. After arrival, they brought us back to one of their rooms and started oxygen and IV therapy immediately. Symptoms literally improved after 5 minutes on O2. An hour later, Dr. Gomez arrived and decided against any chamber treatments since the O2 therapy was so successful and there were no other systemic effects. My only complaint was the the number of people who asked came into the exam room, asking the same questions over and over. Small issue. Everything went smoothly and I was impressed by how professional everybody was. It gave me a great deal of confidence of how well prepared Cozumel and DAN are in handling dive emergencies.
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