Aloha All!
Earlier today I was approached by two friends of mine, a doctor and a commerical dive businessman, who are working toward bringing a deco chamber here to Kailua-Kona Hawaii. They were asking me about the idea of asking local dive ops to ask their divers for donations to the deco chamber on a per diver per day basis.
My questions to all of you:
1) Would you make a donation if you were diving here?
2) How much of a donation would you think is fair?
3) What would you like to recieve? (reciept, brochure, a chamber tour,please make suggestions.)
4) What else (non medical related here) would you like to see a chamber used? for example should the chamber be open for tours, chamber dives, equiptment testing, etc?
5) Should the chamber be open for medical use too, or dedicated to diving related injuries?
They need suggestions and are open to any and all input. I said that I would post this here on SB and ask your thoughts. If we here at SB are not opposed to the concept of a diver donation plan, then I will create a poll to ask for suggestions on the amount to ask per donation.
A personal view:
Here in Kailua Kona we currently do not have a chamber, but one is (maybe) on the way. We need to get one and here is why. If you get bent here in Kailua Kona on the Island of Hawaii, you currently have only one option for medical treatment.
Here is the timeline and the location of each treatment center:
You get injured (bent) and the boat you are diving on lands at the Kailua Pier at 2pm, an ambulance takes you to the hospital at the lowest elevation of 1500 feet, you wait for the air ambulance to arrive at the airport 20 miles from the hospital, they fly you(preasurized to sea level for your flight) to the island of Oahu (city of Honolulu) 1 hour and 10 minute flight, another ambulance drives you to the hospital with the chamber 11 miles away, you get into the chamber at approx 7pm.
I know this time line for a fact, my wife was bent two years ago and I was with her the entire time.
Here comes the best part:
You get out of the chamber 4-8 hours later and are released from the hospital... to go where?? If you do not have any friends or family living on Oahu then you will need to get a hotel for three days due to the restrictions of flying after your chamber treatment. Then you get to purchase a one-way ticket back to Kona where all of your stuff has been sitting in your unused hotel room.
DAN covers almost every expense of this ordeal, but that is not the point. The point is way back at the beginning of this monologue... the 5 hours from onset of injury to climbing into the chamber, and the hospital at elevation while waiting for the air ambulance.
All of this being said, what are your thoughts about this? All input is good input. Please share any and all thoughts, not only about the per diver per day donation, but all aspects of the chamber program.
Thank you all for your time and attention.
Matthew J D'Avella
Earlier today I was approached by two friends of mine, a doctor and a commerical dive businessman, who are working toward bringing a deco chamber here to Kailua-Kona Hawaii. They were asking me about the idea of asking local dive ops to ask their divers for donations to the deco chamber on a per diver per day basis.
My questions to all of you:
1) Would you make a donation if you were diving here?
2) How much of a donation would you think is fair?
3) What would you like to recieve? (reciept, brochure, a chamber tour,please make suggestions.)
4) What else (non medical related here) would you like to see a chamber used? for example should the chamber be open for tours, chamber dives, equiptment testing, etc?
5) Should the chamber be open for medical use too, or dedicated to diving related injuries?
They need suggestions and are open to any and all input. I said that I would post this here on SB and ask your thoughts. If we here at SB are not opposed to the concept of a diver donation plan, then I will create a poll to ask for suggestions on the amount to ask per donation.
A personal view:
Here in Kailua Kona we currently do not have a chamber, but one is (maybe) on the way. We need to get one and here is why. If you get bent here in Kailua Kona on the Island of Hawaii, you currently have only one option for medical treatment.
Here is the timeline and the location of each treatment center:
You get injured (bent) and the boat you are diving on lands at the Kailua Pier at 2pm, an ambulance takes you to the hospital at the lowest elevation of 1500 feet, you wait for the air ambulance to arrive at the airport 20 miles from the hospital, they fly you(preasurized to sea level for your flight) to the island of Oahu (city of Honolulu) 1 hour and 10 minute flight, another ambulance drives you to the hospital with the chamber 11 miles away, you get into the chamber at approx 7pm.
I know this time line for a fact, my wife was bent two years ago and I was with her the entire time.
Here comes the best part:
You get out of the chamber 4-8 hours later and are released from the hospital... to go where?? If you do not have any friends or family living on Oahu then you will need to get a hotel for three days due to the restrictions of flying after your chamber treatment. Then you get to purchase a one-way ticket back to Kona where all of your stuff has been sitting in your unused hotel room.
DAN covers almost every expense of this ordeal, but that is not the point. The point is way back at the beginning of this monologue... the 5 hours from onset of injury to climbing into the chamber, and the hospital at elevation while waiting for the air ambulance.
All of this being said, what are your thoughts about this? All input is good input. Please share any and all thoughts, not only about the per diver per day donation, but all aspects of the chamber program.
Thank you all for your time and attention.
Matthew J D'Avella
