There is a special page for such people, not only diver: The Darwin Awards
and I found scuba cases:
Honorable Mention: Shark Kiss
1998 Urban Legend: Scuba Divers and Forest Fires
2007 Darwin Award: Breathless
Nitrogen Psychosis
- Thread starter J.R.
- Start date
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There is a special page for such people, not only diver: The Darwin Awards
and I found scuba cases:
Honorable Mention: Shark Kiss
1998 Urban Legend: Scuba Divers and Forest Fires
2007 Darwin Award: Breathless
As even the Darwin Awards admits, the second one is an urban legend that almosst certainly did not happen.
The third contains a statement that shows that even the Darwin Awards people make the same kind of mistake that started this thread:
The cause of death: "Air embolism (nitrogen bubbles) due to rapid ascent."
Whats wrong with that (my english is not perfect) went up very fast and got N2 bubbles in the blood. That sounds right or?
OP
Nitrogen bubbles by themselves CANNOT be caused by an embolism. A rough and dirty explanation of an embolism is as follows: the gas in your lungs is forced out of the lungs into your bloodstream, usually caused by an injury to the lungs*.
The point though is that the gas you are breathing exits your lungs. If you are breathing air and it enters your bloodstream the bubbles will thus be O2 and N2 bubbles; if you are breathing trimix it will be O2, N2 and He bubbles and so forth.
If you get only N2 bubbles in the bloodstream that would be caused by DCS (the bends). With DCS the O2 in your blood has had the chance to be metabolised so it can't be present to form bubbles.
Its not sloppy speaking, its sloppy causality. N2 bubbles by themselves can't be caused by an embolism, they would be accompanied by other gases..
If you wanted to get a nitrogen embolism you would have to be breathing pure N2. *blink*
Spot on! They might have some of the same symptoms and sometimes have the same results (bubbles in the bloodstream) but they are caused by two different things.
*note an embolism is actually any foreign body in the bloodstream, a blood clot, a piece of fatty tissue, your mother's micro-sized hairbrush ... anything. But in diving an embolism is shorthand for Arterial Gas Embolism (AGE) which refers to gas in the bloodstream.
The point though is that the gas you are breathing exits your lungs. If you are breathing air and it enters your bloodstream the bubbles will thus be O2 and N2 bubbles; if you are breathing trimix it will be O2, N2 and He bubbles and so forth.
If you get only N2 bubbles in the bloodstream that would be caused by DCS (the bends). With DCS the O2 in your blood has had the chance to be metabolised so it can't be present to form bubbles.
Its not sloppy speaking, its sloppy causality. N2 bubbles by themselves can't be caused by an embolism, they would be accompanied by other gases..
If you wanted to get a nitrogen embolism you would have to be breathing pure N2. *blink*
Spot on! They might have some of the same symptoms and sometimes have the same results (bubbles in the bloodstream) but they are caused by two different things.
*note an embolism is actually any foreign body in the bloodstream, a blood clot, a piece of fatty tissue, your mother's micro-sized hairbrush ... anything. But in diving an embolism is shorthand for Arterial Gas Embolism (AGE) which refers to gas in the bloodstream.
Gosh, you all have ruined so many things for me. I mean, the news isn't always right? I Always believe everything I read. Until now. I gues now, I can only rely for sure, on what "They" say. I mean, you're now gonna start telling me that They are sometimes wrong too?????
I may have some problem with the english as it is not my first language.....
But in that case: 2007 Darwin Award: Breathless
diving deep and long and than swim to the surface very fast (considering he took some air out of the lung so the lung was not damaged). Than he get bubbles in the arterial blood stream (as well at other places). That would be mostly N2 and it is an embolism.
So that embolism is caused by the N2 which is solved in the blood.
Am I right or do I use some terms wrong?
No, you are correct in how you described it. He got the bends, which caused N2 bubbles to form in his blood and since those bubbles are a foreign body in the blood they are therefore an embolism in the strict medical definition.
However the way it is described on that page viz: 'Air embolism (nitrogen bubbles) due to rapid ascent.' is incorrect.
Added to that the page then goes on to describe the bends:
thus implying that an air embolism and the bends are the same thing. While the bends can lead to an embolism (but NOT an AIR embolism) they aren't the same thing.
In short, your understanding of what caused his death is medically correct (although in diving where embolism typically refers to an AGE for shorthand it isn't correct) the description on the Darwin Awards page was wrong.
However the way it is described on that page viz: 'Air embolism (nitrogen bubbles) due to rapid ascent.' is incorrect.
Added to that the page then goes on to describe the bends:
thus implying that an air embolism and the bends are the same thing. While the bends can lead to an embolism (but NOT an AIR embolism) they aren't the same thing.
In short, your understanding of what caused his death is medically correct (although in diving where embolism typically refers to an AGE for shorthand it isn't correct) the description on the Darwin Awards page was wrong.
Oh yeah ... and also note that the bends don't only result in gas embolisms in the bloodstream, they can result in bubbles almost anywhere in your body. In your joints, in muscle, in your fat ... wherever blood flows, bubbles might form (of course this would also be dependent on your dive profile).
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