That's my covering my error; when I accidentally posted the PM I meant to send you. I don't see a delete button; so I edited the post with a random hand-slap to the keyboard.
Also, some people mentioned 25l/min. Why and in which situations have you been told to use such high flow and are there studies showing it is better than the 15l/min? I have done training with 2 different agencies and it was always mentioned 15. Also, on a quick search on the internet, I found references to kits that can provide up to 25, but never seen it being recommended in articles about oxygen administration in emergency situations.
I concur, the flow rate may have been too high. I was trained (SF medic; clinic in A-stan) to administer O2 supplementally at a 4 L/min rate. Our patients usually came in with a 90-95% sat rate (high altitude may have been a factor), and almost immediately stabilized at 99-100%.
For a panicked diver who is demanding O2 as a placebo ONLY, I would consider this same rate. A truly injured diver; I would go with the 15 L/min rate.
Several people have said this and gave examples for instance of the small DAN kit. If the oxygen kit they have is not enough to get a diver on oxygen from their dive spots to shore, then it's not adequate!
I think the O2 was appropriate for the boat and the situation. Wookie's liveaboard may be twelve hours away, and his plans have clearly been well thought out to reflect dealing with a diver mas-cal (NINE divers all hurt) for a significant period of time. They had her to shore in about 20 minutes; and if it was an emergency; higher medical care would have been there. It is not the boat crew's job to treat you; just to get you to higher care as fast as possible and keep you alive until then.
With higher care 20 minutes away, their O2 appears adequate.
Dive Centers in many parts of the world take divers into overhead environments (wrecks, caves...) against the rules of the certification agencies to which they are affiliated. It should be of surprise to no one that Thea on her holidays followed the DM/Guide/Instructor into overhead (on this dive and maybe others including in caves). It is rather common.
ANYONE, and that includes trained cave divers, who ventures into a cave without proper equipment, training or planning, or 'follows the DM' into a cave, is
begging to be the next Darwin Award winner. I think she did this cave diving on her own. I also think she was assigned a buddy, just failed to follow her training and didn't stay near them.
If it had been a "panic attack", I would not have been in respiratory distress 40 minutes later when I got to the clinic. My BP would not have been 180/140, my O2 would not have been 85% and my feet would not have been blue.
If you were still panicked; yes it could have been. Even your vaunted "EIB" attacks don't last this long. You felt short of breath, continued to panic and breath shallow, which felt like you couldn't breath, stoking the panic again. Until it's interupted, it's a vicious cycle.
I had plenty of O2 when I surfaced.
What??? O2? Really?
He had them all leave their gear in the water as he raced us back to the dock.
What???? Now you're just lying.
I KNOW how to inflate a BCD!
....And yet....you did not. Someone else had to.
I unlatched the weight belt on my own, but it hung up on something
That means that you didn't ditch it.
My conclusion, is I was lucky none of these guys assumed I was just "panicking". They got me the O2 and got me to the clinic.
Yes, because they don't know what happened. They see a panicked, choking diver, and do what they can, what they were TRAINED to do; Get you out of the water, out of your gear, on O2, and to higher care.
As soon as I got the O2 and breathing treatment there, I was better in 20 minutes. O2 went right up to 98% and BP was down to 140/80 when I walked out of there.
Yes, it's called placebo effect. You think you're being treated, and you calm down and breath.
No, I did not panic. I had an independent medical event underwater
Something happened to me internally before I ever got to the surface
Because I had an internal medical event
No. You did NOT have a medical event underwater. The more you repeat that, the hollower it sounds. You have not been diagnosed with any medical cause; you self-diagnosed from the internet, and you are not qualified to do so.
The clinic did NOT treat you or diagnose you. O2 is not treatment, and they did nothing other than let you breathe their O2 and calm down.
You panicked. You even admit it. Until you admit that your case was SOLELY a panic reaction, and not a hypochondriactic excuse; you will likely never progress as a diver. You will remain in denial as you blame a non-existent medical condition instead of the mistakes you made.
