Medical conditions preventing diving

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FPDocMatt

Contributor
Messages
446
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197
Location
Middletown, Maryland, USA
# of dives
25 - 49
There is a notice on the Sunset House web site saying that they do not allow anyone who has or has ever had asthma to dive there.

This seems a bit extreme to me. As a physician, I know that there are very mild forms of asthma. I don't quite understand why this would rule out scuba diving. Of course, if someone's asthma were acting up, I could see the danger.

One condition that comes to mind that absolutely rules out diving, though, is seizure disorder. That one's a no-brainer. Even someone who hasn't had a seizure in 10 years could have one at any time, and that of course would be fatal.

Other medical conditions that come to mind which might be dangerous include coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, and emphysema. But here again, I would say that they're relatively contraindicated, because you could have had a bypass operation which makes your risk of a heart attack quite small, and you could have mild emphysema.

Are there other medical conditions which are a matter of concern?
 
Pfft @ Asthma ruling out diving. Tell them to pull their heads in. I don't believe there is a single documented case where a diver was injured or killed because of asthma

Divers Alert Network

Personally, i suffer from allergen triggered asthma. Once a year during spring time when there is lots of pollen around, i suffer and have to reach for the puffer from time to time. I've never suffered an "acute" attack.

As we breath filtered air underwater, it's not likely i am going to suffer an attack while diving. I've also done all the various spiro tests required before getting my diving medical, and if I hadn't have been honest, they wouldn' have even known.
 
I have a friend who dives and has had a seizure, she was able to get cleared by a neurosurgeon who also dives.
 
I have mild asthma and I dive also. Mine is triggered by allergens like animal dander or if I have a respiratory illness, particularly a cough. If I am sick, I don't dive and I don't normally come into contact with allergens when I dive. I was advised to take my inhaler preventively before diving in cold or salt water, or in current, so pretty much always before diving.

Diving with mild asthma seems to be ok, but severe or even moderate asthma is contraindicated. Some doctors do not agree with diving with mild asthma either. I'm sure it must be on a case-by-case basis.
 
I certain don't agree with Sunset House, but I wonder if the place is in a state where defensive medicine, ambulance chasers, and shady lawyers all concentrate. I am not a physician nor a lawyer, but I do believe that there needs to be some principle adhered to regarding personal responsibility. You made an clear comment about seizure disorder. Anyone that suffers from seizure disorder knows the deal. As they approach learning something like scuba diving, commonsense....involving their unique vulnerabilities....should kick in. Hell, even people who have no such limitations ask questions about breathing underwater in unusual circumstances, like right after vomiting. If even that relatively innocuous scenario brings up questions from newbie divers in general, you would think that people with more serious conditions affecting airway would be cautious and ask a lot of questions.
The issue is here, what is someone ignores the obvious cautions, should a dive site owner....or dive operator....have any liability? I think they should not. Unless the person with the condition asked a question at the site or of the dive op and the persons who had a duty to warn did not do their jobs. But a general prohibition is inappropriate...in my little mind.
 
I have mild asthma and I dive also. Mine is triggered by allergens like animal dander or if I have a respiratory illness, particularly a cough. If I am sick, I don't dive and I don't normally come into contact with allergens when I dive. I was advised to take my inhaler preventively before diving in cold or salt water, or in current, so pretty much always before diving.

Diving with mild asthma seems to be ok, but severe or even moderate asthma is contraindicated. Some doctors do not agree with diving with mild asthma either. I'm sure it must be on a case-by-case basis.

I've always thought of my diver friends with asthma taking preventative meds before they dive as a prophylatic, but I also wonder is those drugs are safe when you are scuba diving? anyone here know?

It may be that if you have the kind of asthma triggered by known allergens that are not in your already experienced scuba environment, i.e., your tank and regulator and local waters, then it might be safer to dive drug free, if these prevenative drugs have their own dangers with scuba.
 
Historically any asthma was considered an absolute contraindication to diving, more recently that seems to have been lightened up, by some. I guess Sunset House is just, "Old School" about it.
 
In most cases, medical conditions will only prevent diving or dive training if the individual allows them (that is if the individual reports them). What the provider needs is legal protection and that is usually provided by the release. Of course, if the individuals appearance or behavior makes the condition obvious, that is a different story. also, the individual also has to balance this with any possible risks he might put others under. But everybody has to make their own calls, including Sunset House.
 
All medical conditions require a risk assessment, as every venture under the water does for all of us. We all have different degrees of risk acceptance, too. For example, I have seen a woman with stage IV breast cancer post about whether it's safe to dive on chemo . . . she had a terminal diagnosis, and her risk assessment is going to be totally different from those of us who are well.

Someone who had seizures at one point, but has been seizure-free for 10 years off meds, probably has a higher risk of having a seizure than someone who has never had one, but such a person can drive . . . and having a seizure when driving has to be quite close to the same lethal risk as having one when diving. On the other hand, no one blinks at a grossly overweight, older smoker who doesn't normally exercise at all, who probably has as high a risk of a lethal event when diving as that asymptomatic seizure patient.

A few conditions carry a predictable likelihood of problems severe enough that most of us would not advise someone to take the risk. A history of spontaneous pneumothorax is one, since the recurrence rate is high, and the lethality of a pneumo underwater is going to be very high. Significant asthma with air trapping is another. Seizures requiring daily medication are another. Brittle diabetes is another, although most Type II and many well-controlled Type I's are diving safely. Uncontrolled hypertension, poorly controlled arrhythmias, congestive heart failure, narcolepsy . . . the list is long, and the conditions where I personally would say diving isn't worth the risk are the ones where a bad outcome is a) predictable and b) not within the diver's control. But in certain circumstances, like the one I referred to above, a diver might make the personal decision that the risk was acceptable to them. Then the question becomes, is it acceptable to their buddy or anyone ELSE who is or might be involved in the dive. And that's a much harder question.
 

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