Denisegg's incident and near miss at Jackson Blue

[Seanpaul]

bless you Denise! I would love to dive with you one day

[ScubaSteve]

Denise, I am glad you are OK> As Rick said, we are very glad that it is you writing this report. I can only imagine how frightening it must have been not knowing what was happening. Good on you for calling the dive when you did and for keeping your cool.


EDIT


I am sorry if this is a hijack but it is a question related to IPE.....since this seems to be such an unknown to us, is it possible that a diver experiences this but not severe enough to ever require Hospitalization? Do the fluids drain slowly once deposited in the lungs? Obviously you can tell I am physiologically clueless ......but as soon as Lynne said to get out as quickly as possible it made me wonder if people ever get out early enough, feel off/tight chested/short of breath.etc. and just write it off when the symptons slowly go away.

I am just curious.

[Kevin Carlisle]

Denise you scared the hell out of us but as you could tell by the stream of us at the hospital there are a ton of us who care. I sat at the Er with David Selmo ( who deserves all the credit in the world ) whie the DR did an excellent job explaining what was happening. I hope I never have to see any diver go through this again, Denise being a part of my dive family made it very hard to deal with. A big thanks to the kids working at JBwho did an excellent job at the scene and making sure no spectators touched any equipment.

On the bright side Denise, I now know how quick I can get out of my drysuit Get well sweetie, I look forwrd to seeing you again.

[ZenDiver.3D]

Denise, I am so happy to say hello. And congratulations on coming out of this. We are all so happy that you are on the mend.

[Rick Murchison]

... some phenomenon centralizes intravascular volume to the point where the heart can't cope with it. There may also be a membrane leak component to the problem, causing fluid to exude into the airspaces where they normally would not ...

The more I read the more mysterious (and scary) this IPE thingy gets. So far, it doesn't appear that there's any way to significantly lower one's risk of having an episode, as it's happened in non-hypertensive folks in not-so-cold water without any apparent trigger. Indeed, the episode I'm familiar with before this one happened in the tropics in 82 degree (F) water. So at this point I'm thinking our most useful approach is to concentrate on early detection and swift response.
If there's any silver lining I see it is that in every case of IPE I can find, it happened early in the dive, within about 15 minutes of descent, so having a significant deco obligation at onset is unlikely. That's a good thing as it looks like getting out of the water quickly is important and you don't need DCS complications on top of it all.
So we need to be particularly alert to symptoms early in the dive... what symptoms? What do we need to be particularly sensitive to "early in the dive?"
In this case, persistent coughing. In another case I'm familiar with, a "feeling of running out of air." I think we'd be wise to gather as much as we can on initial symptoms and then teach them to new divers.
I'm not saying "thumb the dive if you cough" - especially me, who's been plagued with a "church cough" (I may not cough for a week, but that stupid tickle in my throat's going to grab me right in the middle of the sermon every time) all my life - but as Denise's experience proves, a cough is a signal to pay particular attention to "lung things" and be ready to thumb it if necessary.
On the other hand, any unexplained shortness of breath or feeling of "running out of air" probably warrants an immediate thumb and sort it out on the surface.
Anyone else got any first-hand testimony from an IPE victim as to symptoms to watch out for?
Rick

[SuPrBuGmAn]

So glad that you are back home Denise.

Was there an incident at Hole in the Wall on Saturday as well? Perhaps it was just rumor or I had heard it wrong, but I was under the impression that you had some difficulty breathing at HITW on Saturday as well.

[miked]

What a scary experience. Thank you for sharing it with us all.
I'm glad that you are feeling better, and send you "good thoughts" for a complete recovery.

[denisegg]

So glad that you are back home Denise.

Was there an incident at Hole in the Wall on Saturday as well? Perhaps it was just rumor or I had heard it wrong, but I was under the impression that you had some difficulty breathing at HITW on Saturday as well.

On Saturday Stasia, Ernest, Dave and I did a dive at HITW. I was wearing a stage as practice for an upcoming class I had intended to take in the near future. There was an issue with the reg on the stage which belonged to my instructor taking on a small amount of water so I switched to my own back gas. My exhaust valve on my sidemount rig also got pinched and was not allowing air to be released from my wing. I was able to recover from these events, do my safety stop in the cavern and back to the boat. DAN was made aware of this situation and didn't seem to think it had anything to do with the event that ocurred on Sunday. I made the decision not to do another dive that day and it was a 24 hour interval before my dive on Sunday. The dive on Sunday was uneventful and very calm and relaxing until I dropped down to > 90ft deep.

[Docc]

I'm glad you're ok. I enjoyed talking with you yesterday and I'll have the person we spoke of call you about the IPE. Spend the summer layin around the pool and work on your tan and get back to divin when you're ready to. I'll keep prayin for ya.

[SuPrBuGmAn]

On Saturday Stasia, Ernest, Dave and I did a dive at HITW. I was wearing a stage as practice for an upcoming class I had intended to take in the near future. There was an issue with the reg on the stage which belonged to my instructor taking on a small amount of water so I switched to my own back gas. My exhaust valve on my sidemount rig also got pinched and was not allowing air to be released from my wing. I was able to recover from these events, do my safety stop in the cavern and back to the boat. DAN was made aware of this situation and didn't seem to think it had anything to do with the event that ocurred on Sunday. I made the decision not to do another dive that day and it was a 24 hour interval before my dive on Sunday. The dive on Sunday was uneventful and very calm and relaxing until I dropped down to > 90ft deep.

Thanks for the clarification denise, what I heard was quite a bit more exaggerated on the medical side it seems...