Diver gets DCS on flight home from Bali

[JackD342]

First “the bends” is not a medical diagnosis.

Just another thought on that - yes, I agree that any medical documents would not say "bends." But remember the context again - this was in a news story, not an accident report. If an uncommon medical or scientific term needs explanation, but a generally understood common term is available, then it is no surprise to me that is what was written.
If a new story said a traveler was diagnosed with "Montezuma's Revenge" I would be very certain that is not what was written on the chart, but would understand and appreciate the use of that non-medical term. My main point is that what was actually reported may have been too quickly and easily discounted in this thread.

And at the risk of repeating from earlier - if there was also a virus or other bug in play it may very well have caused some notable dehydration, compounded by the common dehydration of air travel, and explain how DCS might occur in a scenario that might otherwise have been no issue.

 

[Kay Dee]

A chamber ride does not equate DCS...........

Pardon delay in response but have been off-line this past week.

Re the above reply to my earlier post; I did not imply that a chamber ride equates to having DCS, but I do imply that a chamber ride that resolves suspected DCS sypmtoms (as per this incident) does equate to the patient almost certainly having had DCS (as opposed to Dengue - or other 'infection' - which would still be there after a chamber ride). That is, assuming he left the chamber symptoms free (which it appears he did?).

 

[dmaziuk]

There's this guy named Occam and he says if one has DCS symptoms and the doctors say it's DCS and the symptoms resolve after a chamber ride, it must be Dengue.

 

[michael-fisch]

There's this guy named Occam and he says if one has DCS symptoms and the doctors say it's DCS and the symptoms resolve after a chamber ride, it must be Dengue.

Thats what you get when you play with razors.

Michael

 

[Duke Dive Medicine]

After the doctor starts to understand, you could ask for a saline solution drip IV, and maybe 1000mg of Aspirin (if you don't suffer from ulcers, and are not taking anticoagulants) followed by 325-500mg of Aspirin every 4 hours.
2nd level care would be an extended TT6 in a chamber and maybe LIdocain (which has been shown to work well on the neurological symptoms of severe type 2 DCS, don't ask why Lidocain instead of other anasthetics - no one can explain it but it seems work better than the others for DCS treatment as compared to treatment for pain).

Michael
and no, I'm not a doctor, not even a doctor of divinity. Others will have to sign the Rx's

IV fluids would only be (potentially) called for if the individual could not take fluids by mouth. Aspirin is not a recommended treatment for decompression sickness and is especially inadvisable in the field if the individual has neurological symptoms and there's no way to determine whether he or she is suffering from an intracranial hemorrhage.

Best regards,
DDM

 

[oly5050user]

Never take a flight too soon after scuba diving: It's one lesson a Frisco man learned the hard way

Never take a flight too soon after scuba diving: Texas man learned the hard way
Minhaj Qidwai broke one of the most important rules about scuba diving: taking a flight too soon after. It resulted in him getting severely sick on the plane.

Author: Jobin Panicker
Published: 8:55 PM PDT May 27, 2019
Updated: 10:12 AM PDT May 28, 2019
FRISCO, Texas — Minhaj Qidwai, of Frisco, spent six months preparing for his next vacation to Bali. He was so excited to finally go scuba diving.

"I'm not a crazy adrenaline junkie but I do like randomly going on some type of adventure," Qidwai said.

But his trip deep diving off the shores of Bali was memorable for the wrong reasons. Diving deep ocean depths to going sky-high on an airplane in such a short time gave him decompression sickness.

"As soon as we reached that altitude that's when it crashed and it just hit me," he said.

Qidwai had to take two flights to get back home to Frisco. The first shorter flight he said he felt fine. But he said on the second 13-hour flight from Korea to the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport he was in the worst physical pain.

"My joints started hurting – my elbows, my knees, everything started aching," he said.

Dr. Derek Culnan, with Medical City Plano, was part of the team that treated Minhaj. He says decompression sickness is when high levels of nitrogen gases enter the tissues. The doctor likens it to opening up a shaken bottle of soda.

"Instead of you slowly letting that lid off and those bubbles slowly come out it'll explode out and sort of like the soda pouring all over the place, those bubbles will accrue in your tissues," Dr. Culnan said.

Those bubbles block the blood vessels and restrict blood flow. Untreated decompression sickness or bends can be fatal.

View attachment 521848
Courtesy / Minhaj Qidwai
Qidwai crumpled to the floor at D/FW Airport. His family rushed him to Medical City Frisco. Doctors quickly diagnosed him with bends and he was then taken to Medical City Plano, where there's a hyperbaric chamber.

Staff with Medical City Plano had just left for home after their shift and were called back at midnight to help treat Qidwai.

"When you're not in a coastal area you don't think about things that happen in coastal areas," Culnan said.

It is not an every-day or even every-month diagnosis in North Texas. Five hours Qidwai spent in the hyperbaric chamber getting him down to pressure. It worked.

"It was kind of humbling," he said. "When you take courses over it and you're warned not to do something, you're not God, you're going to get yourself hurt."

He's hoping other people hear his story. The rule is after diving you're supposed to wait 24 hours before getting on a plane. Minhaj has learned that rule should not be taken lightly, no matter how adventurous you are.

Actually current recommendation is 18 hours pre flight.

 

[tursiops]

Actually current recommendation is 18 hours pre flight.

LOL. The entire story is full of stupid actions, inaccuracies and missing information.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Pardon delay in response but have been off-line this past week.

Re the above reply to my earlier post; I did not imply that a chamber ride equates to having DCS, but I do imply that a chamber ride that resolves suspected DCS sypmtoms (as per this incident) does equate to the patient almost certainly having had DCS (as opposed to Dengue - or other 'infection' - which would still be there after a chamber ride). That is, assuming he left the chamber symptoms free (which it appears he did?).

The diver reports that he was in ICU due to some weird virus he caught on Bali or on the plane. That's where the suspicion of dengue came into the discussion. Perhaps he had the very bad luck to be bent and infected. Poor guy

 

[JackD342]

Although the OP pasted text is very nearly a transcript of the broadcast piece, there is an actual video at the story link. When I watch the video I find I have no doubt that the doctor and the patient are both confident it was a DCS issue and it is not simply an interpretation by a reporter. Comes across a lot different in the full spoken word context.