Woman sues five-star holiday resort for £50,000

[ScubaToneDog]

I wonder how this will play out. She isn't suing for much, considering she is paralyzed.

British woman left paralysed sues Indonesian resort | Daily Mail Online

 

[guruboy]

Article says she is able to walk again but lacks feeling. Either way, probably not great.

Article also said it was only a 10m dive. I wonder if she has PFO or some other medical condition that makes her susceptible to DCS.

 

[Bob DBF]

Article also said it was only a 10m dive. I wonder if she has PFO or some other medical condition that makes her susceptible to DCS.

It also mentioned this happened on the third day of her stay at the dive resort, so I'm assuming she was diving the prior two days and it was the cumulative effect rather than the last dive at 10m. Not saying a PFO or other medical condition was not involved as well.

Sad in any event.


Bob

 

[drrich2]

2 Snippets from the article:

"On the third day she surfaced from a dive temporarily blind and disorientated with what felt like 'the worst migraine imaginable'.

She had to be 'dragged' from the water onto the support boat and given oxygen.

But Amy claims the instructors told her the 10m dive 'was not deep enough' to experience decompression illness."

and

"Instead of taking her to hospital, she claims staff gave her the all clear to dive again two days later.

And when she surfaced the symptoms recurred - but this time her arm was twisted and temporarily paralyzed."

It sounds like the dive in which the damage allegedly occurred was after a couple of days dry?

One thing I didn't notice in the article; was she a student taking a course (especially OW or Discover Scuba Diving), or a certified diver? Since the expectation from her side is that staff should've recognized DCS signs, I'm asking to what extent that burden is on them vs. her? Being a student could make a difference.

In fairness to the staff, a diver gets a severe headache on a dive that doesn't even hit 40 feet. Nobody mentioned a live-aboard, so I'm guessing not over 3 dives/day, maybe not over 2, the days leading up that that dive. What are the odds that would be DCS, as opposed to a migraine, result of CO2 retention or one of those headaches we never learn the cause of? The severity sounds extreme. She was given oxygen, presumably just in case it might help? If the headache hadn't improved drastically, she would've gone to a hospital anyway. She didn't, so I take it the headache did improve. In a healthy, fit young woman, how many people would go to a hospital because of one episode of even very severe headache, if it resolved?

Richard.

 

[boulderjohn]

It is indeed pretty hard to get decompression sickness (DCS) in only 10 meters of water. I would think it would border on impossible. It is, however, very possible to get a lung overexpansion injury at that depth. The symptoms of lung overexpansion injury are sometimes so similar to DCS that those symptoms are often diagnosed as Decompression illness (DCS), a diagnosis that can include either one. For treatment, it does not matter which it is, since it is the same for both.

Temporary blindness and a terrible migraine are not common symptoms for either type of DCI. Her very poor recovery is also highly unusual. It would normally take a very severe case of DCS for a person to be so very incapacitated so long after the incident, and it is hard to believe she got DCS at all given the dives she did, let alone a very severe case.

I am not a doctor, but I feel there must be a lot more going on here medically than is normally encountered in diving of this kind.

 

[scubadada]

The young woman's outcome is very unfortunate.

The NDL at 12m/40 feet on air is around 2 hours, DCS does seem relatively unlikely. Temporary blindness, associated with a terrible headache, is very dramatic, whatever the cause. Personally, I would have contacted DAN and would not have continued diving and would advise others similarly. Second guessing is not very helpful, I hope her ultimate outcome is better.

 

[drrich2]

I overlooked the blindness and that is important. More description would be interesting, including duration. Something ‘blinding’ because your eyes are scrunched shut in pain vs. literal eyes open, no light perception blindness.

Richard.

 

[KevinNM]

If you administer oxygen and a problem that occurred after diving rapidly improves that is a big clue.

 

[ScubaToneDog]

The surfacing with blindness and a bad headache could have been an AGE. O2 would help the symptoms. She mentions no symptoms over the next two days. Diving again 2 days after the incident could have aggravated the embolism causing the paralysis.

She was on a six month, round the world vacation of a lifetime. I'm thinking she had little to no dive experience, maybe taking a course(only went 10m). Probably little to no education on the direct/indirect effects of pressure. Bad things happen if you shotgun your way through a course.

If I surface from any dive and require O2....I'm going to a chamber regardless of what the charter people are telling me.

 

[Russjstewart]

Interesting story, the article did appear in the Daily Mail. Wikipedia says "The Daily Mail has been widely criticized for its unreliability...."

Daily Mail - Wikipedia

As previously stated there is no mention of whether Amy was a certified diver or doing a course. The use of the term instructor here is meaningless. Unless the "instructor" was a native English speaker you have the added problem of mis-communication. In lot of dive ops around Indonesia qualified divers are led around by dive guides, who may have no formal qualifications other than recreational certification, not even dive master or equivalent.

Personally if I had temporary blindness after any physical activity, I would be off to a hospital as fast as I could. That is what travel insurance is for in this case.