Post by LSDeep on Jul 8, 2006 21:26:30 GMT -5
Anonymous writes "Recreational Diving and Recreational Drugs, not a good mix
Ill let you decide for yourself. After reading this I hope you all can come to some kind of sensible decision! The names have been changed.
Well the situation all started after a fun diver, Gina having recently been certified, decided to do some fun dives, its natural progression, you get certified, you go diving, simple………. Well you would like to think so, not always the case.
Before I go on though, this is not a made up story, it has not been glorified at all, neither has it been edited to make the persons and dive school look either good or bad, its not a story to try and change the way people live their lives either, just an insight into what can happen, and did.
So, having done the first fun dive of the day, to 16 meters and for 40 mins, Gina got back on the boat and said that she felt sick, and then promptly threw up over the side of the boat, staff on board responded by giving her water and by telling her to keep drinking water to rehydrate herself, this she did.
The diver did not do the second dive as she was still not feeling very well and stayed onboard while the rest of the fun divers made a second dive.
Everyone back on shore, equipment cleaned and staff happy, this is now around 5.30 pm
Around 7.30 the same evening, Gina came to staff at the dive school, accompanied by her friend, and complained that her hands were all cramped up, and on inspection they were, so as a precaution the emergency oxygen was made ready, after a senior dan O2 instructor had spoken to the her and assessed the situation and asked about her background, she was given rehydration fluids because she told the instructor that she had not eaten for 2 days, and had not been taking fluids onboard, and with this she said that they felt ok and that she was going to sit on her balcony and that she did not want to go on the O2.
About 20 mins later an instructor went to check on her and found once again that the her hands were cramped up, the instructor then put Gina in the car and took her to the dive physician immediately. The physician, having looked Gina over got the same information about her background, concluded once again that she was dehydrated and should eat and drink more to build up her strength. She was put on O2 for and hour as a precautionary measure.
At about 11.30 the same evening an instructor went to check on Gina and found she was still not feeling good, and again the instructor took the diver to the clinic, this time she was evacuated to the next nearest island with a recompression chamber and was found to have an air embolism on their brain which was affecting the neurological side of the divers brain.
So, what happened??
Well, after talking at great length to her friends and people that had been around her during the last few days, it came to light that Gina had not told anyone the complete extent of their previous few days activities and had been taking excessive amounts of mushrooms, speed, and the deciding factor and cause of the air embolism was the very heavy session smoking opium all the previous day. This, as we were told by the dive physician, caused the blood arteries and veins to open up and the nitrogen bubbles (that would normally be called silent bubbles which normally accumulate around the joints and extremities), to collect and form bigger nitrogen bubbles in the blood, these bubbles then passed over the heart and went straight to the brain. Had the diver not have been put on the oxygen earlier she would have almost certainly been paralysed, if not dead !!
The fact that Gina was put on O2 at the beginning for an hour probably saved her life!!
Not a scare tactic, just a true story,
Think about the physiological side of your diving, and consider what you do when you are not diving!!
divingallovertheworld.com/article46.html
Ill let you decide for yourself. After reading this I hope you all can come to some kind of sensible decision! The names have been changed.
Well the situation all started after a fun diver, Gina having recently been certified, decided to do some fun dives, its natural progression, you get certified, you go diving, simple………. Well you would like to think so, not always the case.
Before I go on though, this is not a made up story, it has not been glorified at all, neither has it been edited to make the persons and dive school look either good or bad, its not a story to try and change the way people live their lives either, just an insight into what can happen, and did.
So, having done the first fun dive of the day, to 16 meters and for 40 mins, Gina got back on the boat and said that she felt sick, and then promptly threw up over the side of the boat, staff on board responded by giving her water and by telling her to keep drinking water to rehydrate herself, this she did.
The diver did not do the second dive as she was still not feeling very well and stayed onboard while the rest of the fun divers made a second dive.
Everyone back on shore, equipment cleaned and staff happy, this is now around 5.30 pm
Around 7.30 the same evening, Gina came to staff at the dive school, accompanied by her friend, and complained that her hands were all cramped up, and on inspection they were, so as a precaution the emergency oxygen was made ready, after a senior dan O2 instructor had spoken to the her and assessed the situation and asked about her background, she was given rehydration fluids because she told the instructor that she had not eaten for 2 days, and had not been taking fluids onboard, and with this she said that they felt ok and that she was going to sit on her balcony and that she did not want to go on the O2.
About 20 mins later an instructor went to check on her and found once again that the her hands were cramped up, the instructor then put Gina in the car and took her to the dive physician immediately. The physician, having looked Gina over got the same information about her background, concluded once again that she was dehydrated and should eat and drink more to build up her strength. She was put on O2 for and hour as a precautionary measure.
At about 11.30 the same evening an instructor went to check on Gina and found she was still not feeling good, and again the instructor took the diver to the clinic, this time she was evacuated to the next nearest island with a recompression chamber and was found to have an air embolism on their brain which was affecting the neurological side of the divers brain.
So, what happened??
Well, after talking at great length to her friends and people that had been around her during the last few days, it came to light that Gina had not told anyone the complete extent of their previous few days activities and had been taking excessive amounts of mushrooms, speed, and the deciding factor and cause of the air embolism was the very heavy session smoking opium all the previous day. This, as we were told by the dive physician, caused the blood arteries and veins to open up and the nitrogen bubbles (that would normally be called silent bubbles which normally accumulate around the joints and extremities), to collect and form bigger nitrogen bubbles in the blood, these bubbles then passed over the heart and went straight to the brain. Had the diver not have been put on the oxygen earlier she would have almost certainly been paralysed, if not dead !!
The fact that Gina was put on O2 at the beginning for an hour probably saved her life!!
Not a scare tactic, just a true story,
Think about the physiological side of your diving, and consider what you do when you are not diving!!
divingallovertheworld.com/article46.html
?? Let's discuss this (stories, own experience, witness stories etc)!!! For me it would give some extra info which could be good in the future!