Firstly, I would like to stress that I have no symptoms left at this stage. My goal is to show that any insurance - DAN in this instance - can show up quite a bit uselesss if you are stuck in the middle of nowhere.
We have left, my spouse and myself, for 2 weeks in Nordern Sulawesi: one week on Bangka Island ( Murex ) and One week in Lembeh ( NAD).
When we arried @ Murex, we got a very friendly reception: nice place, very few divers, good food.... The existence of a recompression chamber in Manado, 60/90 minutes away , was advertised: modern installation with multilingual international staff..........Dive was great 2/3 divers per guide, calm waters, depth between 20 to 25 meters. Very easy diving, 60 to 70 minutes. See in annex, the profile of my last dive there.
Just after my 11th dive in 4 days, I got a pretty violent pain in one shoulder stepping down from the dive boat. The pain diminished quite fast after a massage and lying down. Did I make a "bad move" stepping up the ladder, was my concern. Half an hour later, going to the toilet, I realised that my head was spinning a bit - I am used to that, low blood pressure. Back to the bed, and my wife notice my back full of marbelled red spots: now the Decompression sickness is well confirmed in our minds. CAll to the dive center and oxygen is administered within minutes, with plenty of 02 supply. They are blending their nitrox tanks on the spot. I forgot to mention that , for a few minutes, I got some tingling on the back of the left foot for some 5/10 minutes. Phobia or type 2 deco sickness, I wonder?
What was very frustrating was that I had no phone signal on this island nor could the dive center call emergency@DANeurope. I finally managed to get DAN some 2 long hours later by sending them an email, and they called us. First and largest problem, the chamber in Manado does NOT operate on this Sunday. I found out the next day, that the chamber had been out of work for quite awhile now.............. I was in contact however with an Italian and then a Belgian Doctor from DAN
If I need to go to the chamber, a sanitory evacuation will need to be organised to Bali or Singapore. This will take at least 24 hours. So let's concentrate on Oxygen therapy, that was the DAN message.
Most symptoms had almost dissapeared in less than an hour. I was left, in the following morning with only 2 small red spots on the side and a sense of heavyness in the left shoulder. New contact with DAN's doctors and more 02 with anti-inflammatory drugs. All back to normal at noon, this is roughly 18 hours after the onset. In total: oxygen foer 6+3+2+2 hours and a lot of water. So a happy ending after all.
Next question, is future dives during our vacation. To go to Lembeh from Europe and NOT DIVE is very though.
I got two opinions: the italian doctor said to wait 7 days, but he never put that in writing. The Belgian Dr did not allow any further diving, even very shallow onces with surox gas
.
So no diving if I am not prepared to dive without any Insurance coverage. So this is what we did: no further diving.
I must say that the owners of NAD, Simon and Zee made a great effort in order to compensate for my loss in this case. They all have been wonderful @ NAD, bringing us left and right for snorkelling, providing good food, poll, jacuzzi etc during the stay at their place. No doubd that, Doctor's permiting, we will pay NAD a visit next year. The place is awesome.
I have an appointment with Dr Germompré in Brussels next week. I am scared to death about my future dive possibilities. Why did I get bent on dive # 862, staying well away from the deco curve, when I have at least 200 deco dives under my belt with no incident whatsoever? I am also nervous about the fact that this Doctor is a medical consultant to DAN. Is he going to have a neutral judgment when he is somehow, paid by DAN?
HAs anyone a qualified judgment on this?
In conclusion. What should one learn from this?
Such stupid accident seems to potentially hit anybody. The second thing is that, whatever insurance you have , there are places in this world that are SO remoted that you may be left on your own.
Best regards.
,
We have left, my spouse and myself, for 2 weeks in Nordern Sulawesi: one week on Bangka Island ( Murex ) and One week in Lembeh ( NAD).
When we arried @ Murex, we got a very friendly reception: nice place, very few divers, good food.... The existence of a recompression chamber in Manado, 60/90 minutes away , was advertised: modern installation with multilingual international staff..........Dive was great 2/3 divers per guide, calm waters, depth between 20 to 25 meters. Very easy diving, 60 to 70 minutes. See in annex, the profile of my last dive there.
Just after my 11th dive in 4 days, I got a pretty violent pain in one shoulder stepping down from the dive boat. The pain diminished quite fast after a massage and lying down. Did I make a "bad move" stepping up the ladder, was my concern. Half an hour later, going to the toilet, I realised that my head was spinning a bit - I am used to that, low blood pressure. Back to the bed, and my wife notice my back full of marbelled red spots: now the Decompression sickness is well confirmed in our minds. CAll to the dive center and oxygen is administered within minutes, with plenty of 02 supply. They are blending their nitrox tanks on the spot. I forgot to mention that , for a few minutes, I got some tingling on the back of the left foot for some 5/10 minutes. Phobia or type 2 deco sickness, I wonder?
What was very frustrating was that I had no phone signal on this island nor could the dive center call emergency@DANeurope. I finally managed to get DAN some 2 long hours later by sending them an email, and they called us. First and largest problem, the chamber in Manado does NOT operate on this Sunday. I found out the next day, that the chamber had been out of work for quite awhile now.............. I was in contact however with an Italian and then a Belgian Doctor from DAN
If I need to go to the chamber, a sanitory evacuation will need to be organised to Bali or Singapore. This will take at least 24 hours. So let's concentrate on Oxygen therapy, that was the DAN message.
Most symptoms had almost dissapeared in less than an hour. I was left, in the following morning with only 2 small red spots on the side and a sense of heavyness in the left shoulder. New contact with DAN's doctors and more 02 with anti-inflammatory drugs. All back to normal at noon, this is roughly 18 hours after the onset. In total: oxygen foer 6+3+2+2 hours and a lot of water. So a happy ending after all.
Next question, is future dives during our vacation. To go to Lembeh from Europe and NOT DIVE is very though.
I got two opinions: the italian doctor said to wait 7 days, but he never put that in writing. The Belgian Dr did not allow any further diving, even very shallow onces with surox gas
.So no diving if I am not prepared to dive without any Insurance coverage. So this is what we did: no further diving.
I must say that the owners of NAD, Simon and Zee made a great effort in order to compensate for my loss in this case. They all have been wonderful @ NAD, bringing us left and right for snorkelling, providing good food, poll, jacuzzi etc during the stay at their place. No doubd that, Doctor's permiting, we will pay NAD a visit next year. The place is awesome.
I have an appointment with Dr Germompré in Brussels next week. I am scared to death about my future dive possibilities. Why did I get bent on dive # 862, staying well away from the deco curve, when I have at least 200 deco dives under my belt with no incident whatsoever? I am also nervous about the fact that this Doctor is a medical consultant to DAN. Is he going to have a neutral judgment when he is somehow, paid by DAN?
HAs anyone a qualified judgment on this?
In conclusion. What should one learn from this?
Such stupid accident seems to potentially hit anybody. The second thing is that, whatever insurance you have , there are places in this world that are SO remoted that you may be left on your own.
Best regards.
,
