kfahmi
Registered
Hello all,
My wife and I are relatively novice divers (106 dives logged over the past 10 years...about 10 night dives, about 30 dives to 30m.) We absolutely love diving, but last week in Thailand we had an incident that scared the c**p out of both of us. I'd love to hear any insight from you folks.
It was the very first dive of a four-day liveaboard. The dive was planned for 30m and an in-water time of 50 minutes, but one of the other divers had some air problems, so the divemaster ended the dive early. We maxed out at 24m with an average of 15m, and were in the water just 33 minutes. Our descent and ascent were normal, with the usual safety stop at 5m for 3 minutes. It was one of the shortest and shallowest dives I've done in a long time.
Anyhow, a few minutes after exiting the water, my wife started to feel odd. She lost motor control of her limbs, and collapsed. She was lucid and talking coherently, but couldn't move at all -- she was totally paralysed. She then reported that her vision had gone. We immediately put her on O2, and had her drink a rehydration solution. She then reported light tingling in her fingers and toes. After about 10--15 minutes, her vision slowly returned, and after half an hour she was able to walk again under her own power. The tingling also vanished.
We got her off the boat and evac'd her to Phuket Intl'l Hospital, keeping her on O2 the entire time. By the time we got there (5 hours after the symptoms appeared), she reported feeling normal. The deco chamber staff gave her some neurologic tests and decided she didn't need to go into the chamber, but she stayed in the hospital overnight (on O2 the entire time) and was released the next day. Since then she's been fine.
What I simply cannot understand is what could have caused this. She was well-hydrated and rested. She's in good physical shape. Her dive was well within normal recreational dive profiles, and it was the first dive she'd done in months.
The doctor suggested that a cardiologist examine her for a patent foramen something-or-other (a flap in the heart, I believe, which could allow nitrogen bubbles to pass from venous blood to arterial blood, creating an air embolism that could have affected her brain and spine, which would explain her paralysis and blindness.) We will have those tests done. But aside from that, what else could have caused this? I love diving, but seeing her get bent after having had none of the risk factors whatsoever, and after a very short and relatively shallow dive, was terrifying.
Any info would be much appreciated. Thanks folks.
My wife and I are relatively novice divers (106 dives logged over the past 10 years...about 10 night dives, about 30 dives to 30m.) We absolutely love diving, but last week in Thailand we had an incident that scared the c**p out of both of us. I'd love to hear any insight from you folks.
It was the very first dive of a four-day liveaboard. The dive was planned for 30m and an in-water time of 50 minutes, but one of the other divers had some air problems, so the divemaster ended the dive early. We maxed out at 24m with an average of 15m, and were in the water just 33 minutes. Our descent and ascent were normal, with the usual safety stop at 5m for 3 minutes. It was one of the shortest and shallowest dives I've done in a long time.
Anyhow, a few minutes after exiting the water, my wife started to feel odd. She lost motor control of her limbs, and collapsed. She was lucid and talking coherently, but couldn't move at all -- she was totally paralysed. She then reported that her vision had gone. We immediately put her on O2, and had her drink a rehydration solution. She then reported light tingling in her fingers and toes. After about 10--15 minutes, her vision slowly returned, and after half an hour she was able to walk again under her own power. The tingling also vanished.
We got her off the boat and evac'd her to Phuket Intl'l Hospital, keeping her on O2 the entire time. By the time we got there (5 hours after the symptoms appeared), she reported feeling normal. The deco chamber staff gave her some neurologic tests and decided she didn't need to go into the chamber, but she stayed in the hospital overnight (on O2 the entire time) and was released the next day. Since then she's been fine.
What I simply cannot understand is what could have caused this. She was well-hydrated and rested. She's in good physical shape. Her dive was well within normal recreational dive profiles, and it was the first dive she'd done in months.
The doctor suggested that a cardiologist examine her for a patent foramen something-or-other (a flap in the heart, I believe, which could allow nitrogen bubbles to pass from venous blood to arterial blood, creating an air embolism that could have affected her brain and spine, which would explain her paralysis and blindness.) We will have those tests done. But aside from that, what else could have caused this? I love diving, but seeing her get bent after having had none of the risk factors whatsoever, and after a very short and relatively shallow dive, was terrifying.
Any info would be much appreciated. Thanks folks.
