Post by LSDeep on May 7, 2006 21:54:50 GMT -5
Paralyzed from the waist down since his May 2005 trip in the gulf, the Bradenton man says his rescue was mismanaged.
By SHADI RAHIMI
Published May 7, 2006
BRADENTON - Timothy Hogan was scuba diving 122 feet underwater in the Gulf of Mexico, and something was very wrong.
His vision had gone blurry. When he blinked, he saw flashes of light, like electrical charges.
But 80 miles from the coast of Tampa Bay, Hogan ignored the signs of trouble. He kept yanking on the line of his spear gun, which was stuck in a 7-pound mangrove snapper that had darted into a crevice of a limestone ridge. A glance at his dive computer showed he had seven minutes to surface safely.
He didn't know it then, but his life was about to change forever.
"I felt fuzzy, but I didn't think much of it," said Hogan, 42, who had been diving for a decade. "I thought maybe I just overexerted myself."
Back on the boat, the symptoms worsened. The captain called the emergency hotline of the Divers Alert Network. A Coast Guard rescue helicopter was dispatched. Hogan waited, anxiously, as the tingling in his toes began creeping to his legs.
He has not walked since that day - May 15, 2005.
During Hogan's second dive of the day, his doctors believe, too much pressure built up in his lungs, causing gas bubbles in his arteries. Called an arterial gas embolism, the condition damaged his spinal cord and led to paralysis.
Many have died as a result of the diving condition, but some have lessened the damage after undergoing intensive hospital treatments where they breathed 100 percent oxygen.
Hogan believes he also could have reduced the harm to his system had he reached a hospital sooner. He is now paralyzed from the waist down.
In March, he filed a civil lawsuit against the Divers Alert Network and the Coast Guard, alleging that they mismanaged his rescue, leaving him waiting for hours as he lost all feeling in his legs.
Other injured divers have tried to sue the Coast Guard without much luck. Federal law does not require the agency to rescue scuba divers.
But the federal agency can be held responsible for negligence, said Hogan's lawyer, Matthew Mudano, because it is in the business of performing rescues.
"Time was of the essence," said Mudano, of the Tampa firm Ogden & Sullivan. "It meant the difference between him walking out of the decompression chamber, and being wheeled out."
The waters off west Florida have long lured deep-sea hunters like Hogan who seek rich bounty: Cobia, snapper and red and black grouper are all abundant in the gulf.
Sunken ships and ledges fewer than 40 miles west of Tampa Bay house large fish including jacks and barracuda. But for the ambitious angler, the Florida Middle Grounds, ancient coral reefs named for their location halfway between Apalachicola and Tampa Bay, promise more than 170 species of fish.
When the weather is calm, a dozen scuba divers a week journey the nearly 100 miles to the Middle Grounds on charter boats. Those numbers can spike to the hundreds during angling and spear fishing tournaments, including the St. Petersburg Open.
It was always well worth the nearly 20-hour trip aboard his friend's slow, former New England lobster boat to reach the coveted reefs, Hogan said.
The owner of a boat bottom cleaning business, Hogan dove for work and had hunted in the Middle Grounds seven times before that final diving trip last May, journeying there with commercial spear fishermen who sold the snapper and red or gag grouper they caught to fish houses and restaurants.
Few divers are as unlucky as he was. Of the 1,903 scuba divers who reported more than 25,000 combined dives to the Divers Alert Network in 2003, only three were diagnosed with decompression sickness.
"Diving is like anything else, if you go at it to the extreme and not by the safety standards, you can get hurt," said Chad Carney, a scuba diving instructor in St. Petersburg.
Arterial air embolisms are estimated to occur among four out of every 100,000 recreational divers per year. Medical experts said in very rare cases, it can occur even when a person was diving properly.
Now bound to a wheelchair, Hogan said he takes antidepressants regularly, along with a host of painkillers.
"It's hard to potty train yourself again," he said. "There's nothing I can do to help myself."
Seated in his kitchen on a recent Thursday, Hogan's legs shook involuntarily in his wheelchair, tapping his black slippers against the tiles. They shake all night while he sleeps, said his wife, Amy.
A 59-pound barracuda he shot hung above the kitchen sink. Hogan excused himself to wheel hurriedly to the bathroom. It was the second time he had relieved himself without a catheter.
"He's mean sometimes," said Amy, 47, softly. "I try to understand. He was always out - hunting, diving. Now he's here, stuck."
During his first dive that morning last May, Hogan said he unknowingly slipped a disc while dislodging the boat's 150-pound anchor from a ledge, before continuing down to 120 feet to hunt snapper and hogfish for about 20 minutes. He said he felt only a tweak in his back, and took an Advil for the pain.
A few hours later, Hogan dove again, and began to feel the symptoms of a diving illness.
He said the first call for help made from the boat was to the emergency hotline of the Divers Alert Network, an international dive safety organization with about 220,000 members.
The hotline, which receives about 3,000 calls a year, is often contacted by members to arrange emergency rescues and medical treatment, said Joel Dovenbarger, the vice president of medical services.
In the United States, the Coast Guard is typically the agency dispatched for the rescues, though it is not required to rescue scuba divers because they have accepted the risks of deep-sea diving.
In a recent case involving another Florida diver who became paralyzed, the Supreme Court refused in 2004 to consider whether the Coast Guard could be sued for providing questionable emergency care.
The diver contended that he could have avoided injury if the Coast Guard had provided him with emergency care on its rescue boat. The Coast Guard argued that under federal law, it has broad discretion to decide whether and how it provides emergency help to divers.
Hogan contends in his civil lawsuit, however, that while the Coast Guard is not required to rescue divers, "when it does so voluntarily, it assumes the duty to perform such rescues with reasonable skill."
The Coast Guard helicopter got lost during his rescue, Hogan alleges. By the time he reached the Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center in Fort Myers, more than five hours later, it was too late, he said. He underwent 11 treatments in a hyperbaric chamber, but was told by doctors that he would probably never walk again.
"I could still feel my legs while I was waiting for them," Hogan said.
Doctors at the hospital also operated on his herniated disc, but noted in his medical records prior to performing the surgery that it "may add nothing to the patient's recovery as far as his spinal cord injury."
Lawyers from the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
Hogan is also suing Divers Alert Network because it arranged the rescue.
Dovenbarger would not comment about the lawsuit. He said in general, the organization is a liaison that arranges emergency and medical services.
"Once we've done exactly what we're supposed to do by contacting the emergency services provider and the hospital, there's nothing we can do to influence them," he said.
In the year since the diving trip, Hogan has given up his boat cleaning business, relying instead on disability checks of $1,500 a month, and his wife's salary of $7 an hour at the Publix deli. Despite the odds, he is hopeful he will win his case. At the very least, he said, he wants an apology.
"It was avoidable," Hogan said, referring to his paralysis. "It didn't have to end like this."
Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this story.
DEEP-SEA DIVING CONDITIONS
Doctors believe the spinal cord injury that led to Timothy Hogan's paralysis was the result of an arterial gas embolism that occurred during his second dive in the Middle Grounds on May 15 last year. He is now paralyzed from the waist down.
DECOMPRESSION SICKNESS: Also known as "the bends," it is more common and less deadly than an arterial gas embolism and occurs when too much nitrogen builds up in the body because a diver has stayed underwater too long or surfaced too quickly.
ARTERIAL GAS EMBOLISM: It is caused when air pressure builds up excessively in the lungs, resulting in gas bubbles being carried to major organs, including the brain. In very rare cases, experts said, it can occur even when a person has been diving properly.
TREATMENT: Both conditions are addressed with decompression treatment, where the diver breathes 100 percent oxygen for hours at a time in a hyperbaric or pressurized chamber. Hogan was treated at the Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center in Fort Myers.
[Last modified May 7, 2006, 01:10:18]
www.sptimes.com/2006/05/07/Tampabay/Disabled_on_scuba_div.shtml
By SHADI RAHIMI
Published May 7, 2006
BRADENTON - Timothy Hogan was scuba diving 122 feet underwater in the Gulf of Mexico, and something was very wrong.
His vision had gone blurry. When he blinked, he saw flashes of light, like electrical charges.
But 80 miles from the coast of Tampa Bay, Hogan ignored the signs of trouble. He kept yanking on the line of his spear gun, which was stuck in a 7-pound mangrove snapper that had darted into a crevice of a limestone ridge. A glance at his dive computer showed he had seven minutes to surface safely.
He didn't know it then, but his life was about to change forever.
"I felt fuzzy, but I didn't think much of it," said Hogan, 42, who had been diving for a decade. "I thought maybe I just overexerted myself."
Back on the boat, the symptoms worsened. The captain called the emergency hotline of the Divers Alert Network. A Coast Guard rescue helicopter was dispatched. Hogan waited, anxiously, as the tingling in his toes began creeping to his legs.
He has not walked since that day - May 15, 2005.
During Hogan's second dive of the day, his doctors believe, too much pressure built up in his lungs, causing gas bubbles in his arteries. Called an arterial gas embolism, the condition damaged his spinal cord and led to paralysis.
Many have died as a result of the diving condition, but some have lessened the damage after undergoing intensive hospital treatments where they breathed 100 percent oxygen.
Hogan believes he also could have reduced the harm to his system had he reached a hospital sooner. He is now paralyzed from the waist down.
In March, he filed a civil lawsuit against the Divers Alert Network and the Coast Guard, alleging that they mismanaged his rescue, leaving him waiting for hours as he lost all feeling in his legs.
Other injured divers have tried to sue the Coast Guard without much luck. Federal law does not require the agency to rescue scuba divers.
But the federal agency can be held responsible for negligence, said Hogan's lawyer, Matthew Mudano, because it is in the business of performing rescues.
"Time was of the essence," said Mudano, of the Tampa firm Ogden & Sullivan. "It meant the difference between him walking out of the decompression chamber, and being wheeled out."
The waters off west Florida have long lured deep-sea hunters like Hogan who seek rich bounty: Cobia, snapper and red and black grouper are all abundant in the gulf.
Sunken ships and ledges fewer than 40 miles west of Tampa Bay house large fish including jacks and barracuda. But for the ambitious angler, the Florida Middle Grounds, ancient coral reefs named for their location halfway between Apalachicola and Tampa Bay, promise more than 170 species of fish.
When the weather is calm, a dozen scuba divers a week journey the nearly 100 miles to the Middle Grounds on charter boats. Those numbers can spike to the hundreds during angling and spear fishing tournaments, including the St. Petersburg Open.
It was always well worth the nearly 20-hour trip aboard his friend's slow, former New England lobster boat to reach the coveted reefs, Hogan said.
The owner of a boat bottom cleaning business, Hogan dove for work and had hunted in the Middle Grounds seven times before that final diving trip last May, journeying there with commercial spear fishermen who sold the snapper and red or gag grouper they caught to fish houses and restaurants.
Few divers are as unlucky as he was. Of the 1,903 scuba divers who reported more than 25,000 combined dives to the Divers Alert Network in 2003, only three were diagnosed with decompression sickness.
"Diving is like anything else, if you go at it to the extreme and not by the safety standards, you can get hurt," said Chad Carney, a scuba diving instructor in St. Petersburg.
Arterial air embolisms are estimated to occur among four out of every 100,000 recreational divers per year. Medical experts said in very rare cases, it can occur even when a person was diving properly.
Now bound to a wheelchair, Hogan said he takes antidepressants regularly, along with a host of painkillers.
"It's hard to potty train yourself again," he said. "There's nothing I can do to help myself."
Seated in his kitchen on a recent Thursday, Hogan's legs shook involuntarily in his wheelchair, tapping his black slippers against the tiles. They shake all night while he sleeps, said his wife, Amy.
A 59-pound barracuda he shot hung above the kitchen sink. Hogan excused himself to wheel hurriedly to the bathroom. It was the second time he had relieved himself without a catheter.
"He's mean sometimes," said Amy, 47, softly. "I try to understand. He was always out - hunting, diving. Now he's here, stuck."
During his first dive that morning last May, Hogan said he unknowingly slipped a disc while dislodging the boat's 150-pound anchor from a ledge, before continuing down to 120 feet to hunt snapper and hogfish for about 20 minutes. He said he felt only a tweak in his back, and took an Advil for the pain.
A few hours later, Hogan dove again, and began to feel the symptoms of a diving illness.
He said the first call for help made from the boat was to the emergency hotline of the Divers Alert Network, an international dive safety organization with about 220,000 members.
The hotline, which receives about 3,000 calls a year, is often contacted by members to arrange emergency rescues and medical treatment, said Joel Dovenbarger, the vice president of medical services.
In the United States, the Coast Guard is typically the agency dispatched for the rescues, though it is not required to rescue scuba divers because they have accepted the risks of deep-sea diving.
In a recent case involving another Florida diver who became paralyzed, the Supreme Court refused in 2004 to consider whether the Coast Guard could be sued for providing questionable emergency care.
The diver contended that he could have avoided injury if the Coast Guard had provided him with emergency care on its rescue boat. The Coast Guard argued that under federal law, it has broad discretion to decide whether and how it provides emergency help to divers.
Hogan contends in his civil lawsuit, however, that while the Coast Guard is not required to rescue divers, "when it does so voluntarily, it assumes the duty to perform such rescues with reasonable skill."
The Coast Guard helicopter got lost during his rescue, Hogan alleges. By the time he reached the Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center in Fort Myers, more than five hours later, it was too late, he said. He underwent 11 treatments in a hyperbaric chamber, but was told by doctors that he would probably never walk again.
"I could still feel my legs while I was waiting for them," Hogan said.
Doctors at the hospital also operated on his herniated disc, but noted in his medical records prior to performing the surgery that it "may add nothing to the patient's recovery as far as his spinal cord injury."
Lawyers from the Justice Department and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Florida declined to comment, citing pending litigation.
Hogan is also suing Divers Alert Network because it arranged the rescue.
Dovenbarger would not comment about the lawsuit. He said in general, the organization is a liaison that arranges emergency and medical services.
"Once we've done exactly what we're supposed to do by contacting the emergency services provider and the hospital, there's nothing we can do to influence them," he said.
In the year since the diving trip, Hogan has given up his boat cleaning business, relying instead on disability checks of $1,500 a month, and his wife's salary of $7 an hour at the Publix deli. Despite the odds, he is hopeful he will win his case. At the very least, he said, he wants an apology.
"It was avoidable," Hogan said, referring to his paralysis. "It didn't have to end like this."
Times researcher Caryn Baird contributed to this story.
DEEP-SEA DIVING CONDITIONS
Doctors believe the spinal cord injury that led to Timothy Hogan's paralysis was the result of an arterial gas embolism that occurred during his second dive in the Middle Grounds on May 15 last year. He is now paralyzed from the waist down.
DECOMPRESSION SICKNESS: Also known as "the bends," it is more common and less deadly than an arterial gas embolism and occurs when too much nitrogen builds up in the body because a diver has stayed underwater too long or surfaced too quickly.
ARTERIAL GAS EMBOLISM: It is caused when air pressure builds up excessively in the lungs, resulting in gas bubbles being carried to major organs, including the brain. In very rare cases, experts said, it can occur even when a person has been diving properly.
TREATMENT: Both conditions are addressed with decompression treatment, where the diver breathes 100 percent oxygen for hours at a time in a hyperbaric or pressurized chamber. Hogan was treated at the Southwest Florida Regional Medical Center in Fort Myers.
[Last modified May 7, 2006, 01:10:18]
www.sptimes.com/2006/05/07/Tampabay/Disabled_on_scuba_div.shtml