Denisegg's incident and near miss at Jackson Blue

[o2fill]

Denise,

Did you decide to return to diving?

I experienced IPE a year ago and returned to diving briefly while in Hawaii in August. Just after we returned, DAN Australia 's medical team contacted me to do a follow up on my accident. They had a fatality in which a woman returned to diving, did 53 dives without incident and then succumbed to IPE. They have also seen IPE in divers with a prior history even while swimming or snorkeling. There advice was "give up all open water swimming - period" until we get more data about how to prevent the problem.

Just thought you should know.

Phil

[denisegg]

I stopped diving for 2 months after my July 4th, 2010 incident then started back and have done 74 dives since then ranging from shore dives to 163 ffw on trimix in a cave during an ART class. Most of my diving ranges in the 90 to 110 ffw and fsw and recently my deepest cave penetration post incident was 1000 ft.
Without knowing anything about this woman's health or the circumstances surrounding her two events there is no way to make a correlation. I have read many accounts where there were no recurrence documented.
During my hospital stay I was found to have hyperthyroidism induced by improper medication which was discontinued by the endocrinologist treating me and resolved this issue and mild hypertension which is being treated by coreg cr 10mg.
One correlation that has come to light from persons I have read about and spoken to were that mild hypertension was involved and a strenuous dive or exercise the day before. I check my blood pressure on a regular basis to make sure it stays within the normal range. I am also very cautious about multiple days of diving, and constantly monitor my physical and mental stress before and during diving which has improved as evidenced by being able to now consistently keep an average RMV of .4 in OW and .5 in a high flow cave.
I'm sorry but no doctor is going to tell me I can't do something just because he/she has no answer. That's like saying avoid life because you're going to die one day.

Disclaimer: Anyone who has had an IPE believe me I sincerely sympathize and empathize with what you have been through and my decision to continue is in no way encouraging others to do so. You have to make that choice based on your own doctor's recommendations and your own convictions about your health and ability to safely continue to dive.

[Duke Dive Medicine]

Denise,

Did you decide to return to diving?

I experienced IPE a year ago and returned to diving briefly while in Hawaii in August. Just after we returned, DAN Australia 's medical team contacted me to do a follow up on my accident. They had a fatality in which a woman returned to diving, did 53 dives without incident and then succumbed to IPE. They have also seen IPE in divers with a prior history even while swimming or snorkeling. There advice was "give up all open water swimming - period" until we get more data about how to prevent the problem.

Just thought you should know.

Phil

Phil,
Sorry for the bad news. I do think it's worthwhile to note for the others who may read this thread that the decision to return to diving/swimming after an IPE incident is, as Denise pointed out below, best made on a case-by-case basis. One person's IPE is not necessarily another person's. A lot depends on the etiology. Also, I'd like to reiterate that we're doing a study on immersion pulmonary edema and we're looking for participants. Please feel free to PM me if you're interested. It's a free trip to Durham and a pretty fair-sized reimbursement check.
Best regards,
DDM