Bent in Belize--Blue Hole Incident

[GLENFWB]

This exact thing happened to me while diving in the Galapagos Islands two years ago. If you are not familiar with Galapagos diving, generally you are diving in a group and we had 8 in our group. Basically everyone is diving the same profile. My computer never went in to deco, safety stops were always observed, and out of 8 in our group, and 16 total on the boat I am the only one who took a hit. After 3 chamber rides and my return trip to the states, I evaluated my dives with several tech instructor friends. We came to some conclusions about possible/probable causes. I have adjusted my diving since that time to be ultra conservative in my profiles. Obviously other people can get away with more aggressive profiles then my body will allow.

1. No dive table or decompression algorithm is 100% safe.
2. Even within recreational limits, the tables and algorithms are not iso-risk. In other words, the deeper the dive and the longer the bottom time, the higher the probability of DCS.

It's not unusual for one member of a group that follows the same dive profile to get DCS while the others don't. We see it all the time. And I suspect that if you actually counted the countless thousands and analyzed all the cases of decompression sickness among dive groups who perform the same dives as the OP did, you'd come up with a significantly higher rate of DCS than the baseline for Carribbean PDE divers.

Best regards,
DDM


Best regards,
DDM

 

[vladimir]

Remember the part where I'm Canadian and I dive in 50F? I don't shiver in the water. I don't shiver after polar bear swims.

I was soaking in the cold-water plunge pool at the club today, testing a theory on brown fat, and I thought of this statement. You seem to be attaching some significance to the shivering. Is it your theory that it was a sign of DCS (it's not), or that it predisposed you to DCS?

 

[themagni]

I was soaking in the cold-water plunge pool at the club today, testing a theory on brown fat, and I thought of this statement. You seem to be attaching some significance to the shivering. Is it your theory that it was a sign of DCS (it's not), or that it predisposed you to DCS?

Aren't tremors a sign? I thought they were.

 

[vladimir]

Aren't tremors a sign? I thought they were.

Okay, I guess a shiver = a tremor, although I suspect a doctor might make a distinction. I think if you did three dives without a wetsuit you were probably shivering from the cold—Canadian or not—but you'd be a better judge of that than I.

Signs and symptoms, per DAN:

Symptoms of DCS
- Unusual fatigue
- Skin itch
- Pain in joints and / or muscles of the arms, legs or torso
- Dizziness, vertigo, ringing in the ears
- Numbness, tingling and paralysis
- Shortness of breath
Signs of DCS
- Skin may show a blotchy rash
- Paralysis, muscle weakness
- Difficulty urinating
- Confusion, personality changes, bizarre behavior
- Amnesia, tremors
- Staggering
- Coughing up bloody, frothy sputum
- Collapse or unconsciousness

 

[windapp]

Thank you for being so candid with your post. It's a whole lot more difficult to resist doing something wrong when have paid, and are already on the boat, and the only alternative is not doing the dive.

 

[flareside]

Putting aside for a moment the admitted and well-discussed shortcomings in the OP's decision-making for this dive series, he essentially followed along with the dive group. Your question then is, "Why weren't the rest of them bent?". We've been struggling to answer that for a long time. A couple of things we do know:

1. No dive table or decompression algorithm is 100% safe.
2. Even within recreational limits, the tables and algorithms are not iso-risk. In other words, the deeper the dive and the longer the bottom time, the higher the probability of DCS.

It's not unusual for one member of a group that follows the same dive profile to get DCS while the others don't. We see it all the time. And I suspect that if you actually counted the countless thousands and analyzed all the cases of decompression sickness among dive groups who perform the same dives as the OP did, you'd come up with a significantly higher rate of DCS than the baseline for Carribbean PDE divers.

Best regards,
DDM

Thank you for the response. Do you know if there have been any studies relating onset of DCS to dehydration or insufficient caloric intake (in addition to the time/depth factors)?

I'm asking simply because DCS is the kind of thing you want to avert from every possible angle.

 

[DevonDiver]

Many of the symptoms of DCS look easy to misinterpret on paper. From my experience (have seen a few DCS incidents) those symptoms normally have a very distinct characteristic when seen in real life - typically quite distinct from other issues.

In this instance - the word tremors might, on paper, be easy to confuse with shivering. However, when we consider that this is a neurological effect, it becomes easier to understand that tremors from DCS is more akin to a nervous palsy, tick or repetitive micro-spasm.

I've seen DCS manifest via fatigue, coughing/choking/shortness of breath, skin rash, itching, limb 'weakness', joint pain and other symptoms. In every instance, those signs were sufficient to set immediate alarm bells ringing. They were unmistakable.

 

[Downing]

Very interesting and long read as that thread's up to 15 pages and still climbing at this point.

The OP made so many mistakes it's hard to point to which one's the most critical. Although his story's credible, it's a little hard to believe that DAN told him to first sleep on it rather than direct him to medical attention right away. Maybe it was the way he described the incident to them.

In any case, for those who come to this board thinking of diving the Blue Hole for the first time, I'd strongly suggest they follow Peter's link to that thread and read it before they go.

 

[themagni]

Many of the symptoms of DCS look easy to misinterpret on paper. From my experience (have seen a few DCS incidents)

Up until Sunday, I had zero experience with DCS. I've never seen a case, I didn't know what the signs and symptoms are, and I didn't think it would happen to me.

---------- Post Merged at 09:53 AM ---------- Previous Post was at 09:37 AM ----------

Thank you for the response. Do you know if there have been any studies relating onset of DCS to dehydration or insufficient caloric intake (in addition to the time/depth factors)?

I'm asking simply because DCS is the kind of thing you want to avert from every possible angle.

That's an interesting idea.

My calorie intake was way below normal, normally I'll eat 3000 calories a day. (I'm fairly active) and I got nowhere near that. Breakfast ("we provide breakfast") was also a protein bar, as everything had milk. I did get a fair bit of fruit during the day, and lots of water, but nowhere near the intake I normally get.

Now, to get that energy, I'm going to break down my fat reserves. That's going to burn a lot more oxygen than I normally would, and so suddenly my ratio of nitrogen in the gas I'm breathing increases. That oxygen that SHOULD have been used to reduce the N2 load is instead going into my liver to chop up fat for fuel.

Thus, I'm essentially breathing a high-N2 mix of gas instead of regular compressed air, putting my N2 loading up higher than anyone else in the dive group.

Just a thought.

Still not trying to say it's not my fault here.

 

[Damselfish]

Thanks for sharing, and my best for a speedy recovery. Now if this could be made a sticky post, and have exactly what happened to the OP printed and shared in every single OW class, maybe more people will think twice. I know it's made me think a lot about whether to go to a tropical dive site such as Belize or GC with my limited experience currently.

Don't let this prevent you from doing tropical diving. There is plenty of suitable diving for all levels of divers in Belize, Grand Cayman, and many other places. The BH is an aberration in many ways.