Decompression Sickness

[deepseamurse]

Hi everyone,
Im in nursing school right now, and part of the program has to include a community project presentation where I have to present something to the community. So I decided to pick my topic based on something I'm sort of familiar with: Decompression Sickness.
Ive done some research based on my old notes from DIT and I also scoured the DAN website.
Is there anyplace else I should look at that you guys would recommend?

Its mostly going to be dealing with DCS at altitude.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Also please delete if this is not the appropriate forum to post this

 

[boulderjohn]

As someone who dives a lot at altitude, I have looked deeply into this topic. If you go to my website's resources page, you will find a number of resources that should give you a good start. I suggest you start with the one I wrote (near the top), which should give you a decent overview of the issues involved.

 

[deepseamurse]

As someone who dives a lot at altitude, I have looked deeply into this topic. If you go to my website's resources page, you will find a number of resources that should give you a good start. I suggest you start with the one I wrote (near the top), which should give you a decent overview of the issues involved.

Thank you John. I'll take a look at them tomorrow after my exam and final. Would you recommend I should include anything that would cater to ER Staff and EMTs as an audience?

 

[boulderjohn]

Thank you John. I'll take a look at them tomorrow after my exam and final. Would you recommend I should include anything that would cater to ER Staff and EMTs as an audience?

Good question.

The important thing they need to know is that research indicates getting someone with serious DCS into proper treatment as soon as possible is critical. Delays in treatment can be fatal. They need to understand the symptoms of DCS and understand that the person who shows up at the ER with those symptoms--which can appear to be no big deal compared to other traumas--should not be sent to the back of the line after triage wile the staff works on the people with migraines.

 

[tbone1004]

also go to the rubicon foundation where you can read all the papers where Duke Hyperbarics did altitude studies in their chambers. @Duke Dive Medicine was involved in all of them and may be able to point you to some particularly interesting studies

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

Hi everyone,
Im in nursing school right now, and part of the program has to include a community project presentation where I have to present something to the community. So I decided to pick my topic based on something I'm sort of familiar with: Decompression Sickness.
Ive done some research based on my old notes from DIT and I also scoured the DAN website.
Is there anyplace else I should look at that you guys would recommend?

Its mostly going to be dealing with DCS at altitude.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Also please delete if this is not the appropriate forum to post this

Hi @deepseamurse ,

First, welcome to the profession! It's great that you're doing a presentation like this. Re DCS at altitude, are you looking for information about altitude DCS, i.e. aviation bends, or decompression sickness that happens after diving at altitude?

Best regards,
DDM

 

[deepseamurse]

Hi @deepseamurse ,

First, welcome to the profession! It's great that you're doing a presentation like this. Re DCS at altitude, are you looking for information about altitude DCS, i.e. aviation bends, or decompression sickness that happens after diving at altitude?

Best regards,
DDM

Hey Duke dive medicine, sorry for the delay. Nursing schools been busy lol
We are mainly looking for information regarding to what happens to divers diagnosed with DCS at altitude.

 

[Sam Miller III]

@deepseamurse

I read your CV -- very impressive ! NAUI Advanced and Divers Institute ! You are well prepared for your given profession

My son is a NAUI (Life) & PADI Instructor. a SSI Pro 5000 and an ER & Scrips trained Hyperbaric doctor .
He is the only hypebaric doctor on the lovely central coast between Sana Barbara to the south and Pacific Grover to the north.

You two should chat

Check your PM for details
SDM

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

PM sent.

 

[shurite7]

Hi everyone,
Im in nursing school right now, and part of the program has to include a community project presentation where I have to present something to the community. So I decided to pick my topic based on something I'm sort of familiar with: Decompression Sickness.
Ive done some research based on my old notes from DIT and I also scoured the DAN website.
Is there anyplace else I should look at that you guys would recommend?

Its mostly going to be dealing with DCS at altitude.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Also please delete if this is not the appropriate forum to post this

Bruce Weinke's book Diving Above Seal Level, ISBN 0941332306 is well worth reading and has a list of sources. Rubicon's website is one of the places where I went for my research. I found several good articles conducted by the Hindi (India) and Bolivian military regarding diving at high elevation. Acclimation to high elevation was a key factor in their reports.
"High Altitude Dives...in the Himalayas" by Sahni, et al.
"The effects of high altitude on relative performance of dive decompression computers" was an interesting article.

I dive almost exclusively at high elevation and did as much research as a I could find. BoulderJohn has eluded to this many times in other posts, there isn't that much material out there. The NOAA manual, in my view, was very limited. There is an old NAUI publication regarding high elevation diving. In my view the key factors, putting aside equipment, when diving at high elevation are: slow ascent rates, acclimation to elevation, and gas mix.