Advice from an instructor - wear gloves or else

[CJ Waid]

Okay, here I am, an instructor, and dumb founded at just how dumb I can be.

MY STORY: I was diving on a blown up old wreck down in Pompano Beach, FL.
NOT WEARING GLOVES, for some reason I decided to place my tender hands on the side of the wreck and gently push myself over the edge, for no good reason except to do it... I barely touched the wreck, but I cut myself... Now this is where the stupidity began (aside from not wearing gloves which was the stupidity that caused the whole problem).

I decided to stay down and check out this shark that was chill under a reef ledge.

Through some neosporen on it, and a band aid and called it good... tiny little cut on my little pinky finger, deep, but didn't think nothing of it...

WELL... the next day it looked like what I would expect, a little white around the edge of the cut, but other than that nothing terrible (that white edge was a sign by the way, infection)...

Then I decided to go surfing for like 8 hours with my girlfriend the next day, my finger was involved in the paddling of course... and then over the next day I began to feel a little itching in my finger, and I felt tenderness under my arm pits, I thought it was from surfing or doing push ups, thought the itching was from just being a dirty minger (as my girlfriend calls me)...

Well... I woke up about 5 days later (SATURDAY morning) and couldn't lift my arms up at all (My lymph nodes where swelled up like baseballs), and my finger was black... BUT, I AM A MAN, so I was going to wait until Monday to go to the hospital because i had a scuba class to teach that weekend and I wasn't about to stay out of the water, I got out of bed at 5am, then fell back on the bed at 5:05 calling for my girlfriend as I was passing out... next we went to the ER, where I was passing out while in a wheel chair, couldn't believe it, thought I was dying, had cephelitus going up my arm, infection in my blood, etc.........

So, spent 6 days in the hospital hooked up to IV's running 24/7 (having some NASTY reactions to some of the antibiotics, something called RED MAN syndrome, apparentely they call it that because your head turns red, but I call it that because it feels like there are native americans beating on tom toms inside your head while your head is turning into a big red balloon...

They wanted to keep me for another week, but there was a swell from an offshore storm and I wanted to go to the beach to see my girlfriend....

Any way, $14,000+ medical bills, loss of teaching a class, TORTURED for 6 days, and a swollen liver and spleen... all this could have been prevented simply by wearing REEF GLOVES>......

LEARN FROM MY STUPIDITY.

 

[Bubbletrubble]

So, spent 6 days in the hospital hooked up to IV's running 24/7 (having some NASTY reactions to some of the antibiotics, something called RED MAN syndrome, apparentely they call it that because your head turns red, but I call it that because it feels like there are native americans beating on tom toms inside your head while your head is turning into a big red balloon...

Lovely! I guess you're not a big fan of vancomycin. It's pretty much the standard treatment for MRSA.

They wanted to keep me for another week, but there was a swell from an offshore storm and I wanted to go to the beach to see my girlfriend....

Any way, $14,000+ medical bills, loss of teaching a class, TORTURED for 6 days, and a swollen liver and spleen... all this could have been prevented simply by wearing REEF GLOVES>......

LEARN FROM MY STUPIDITY.

You may want to check out a 3M wound care product called Tegaderm. It provides a waterproof barrier from the outside-in yet allows wound exudates to pass from inside-out. It's pricey...but not nearly as expensive as your hospital stay.

Sorry to hear about your battle with the microbes...

 

[TSandM]

The white edges of the wound were not a sign of infection. Wound edges are often white, due to the type of dressing employed and the reduced circulation to the cut tissue.

Any wound can become infected, and often the infections are due to our own skin flora. The fact that they were using Vancomycin suggests this was the case.

At any rate, all wounds should be copiously flushed with clean water (nothing else) and kept clean and dry until sealed, or sutured if deep enough, long enough, or in a high motion area.

 

[BuoyantC]

TSandM I have a question for you. An ER Doc here told us the best treatment for coral scrapes and such was to rinse it with alcohol initially (not repeatedly) and leave it uncovered. To use an antibiotic ointment and a dressing would be to invite problems. True or false?

I have to say, it's worked well for us for the few times we tried it over the past couple years.

 

[Jeff Toorish]

CJ,

First, sorry to hear about your difficulties. Hopefully your experience will help prevent someone else from facing such an ordeal.

It would also be great if the folks at some of the dive locations that prohibit gloves read this.

Jeff

 

[QatarDiver]

There is another solution, the OP said 'I decided to place my tender hands on the side of the wreck and gently push myself over the edge', so rather than wear gloves next time, how about no touching stuff?

 

[annasea]

There is another solution, the OP said 'I decided to place my tender hands on the side of the wreck and gently push myself over the edge', so rather than wear gloves next time, how about no touching stuff?

While it doesn't apply to the OP's situation, sometimes it can't be helped. For example, I knew not to touch a wreck--especially with no gloves on--but it was my first swim-through and I inadvertently grazed my pinky on it. I had a cut at least an inch long but fortunately, it wasn't infected and healed quite quickly. Ever since then, I've always worn gloves on a wreck. YMMV...

 

[paperdesk]

Thank you for sharing you experience, but sorry for the trouble you endured!

I prefer wearing gloves but sometimes it's not allowed. Once or twice I have stuck them in my BCD pocket and put them on during the dive, then took them off before surfacing. I guess they were worried that a person wearing gloves (or a knife) would damage the reef. I see the point, but don't feel that is the best way to regulate reef damage.

 

[it_mike]

CJ, wouldn't you have saved some of that money if you hadn't waited a week to seek treatment? I mean, did it really go from itching for 4 days to black and unable to lift your arms overnight?

BTW, I always wear at least the fabric gloves with rubberized grips, like gardening gloves. On and off quickly, light weight, and no thermal protection.

 

[TSandM]

BuoyantC, I'm not aware of any effect that alcohol has to neutralize toxins in coral or any other marine envenomation. For open wounds in other environments, it has been clearly shown that the use of topical disinfectants does not improve outcome. Alcohol and iodine are tissue-toxic, and impair healing. Copious irrigation with clean, fresh water is the key to minimizing the bacterial load in a wound, and then keeping the wound clean and appropriately covered is the best further treatment.