Diver Nearly Drowns on Dive Boat Deck

[o2fill]

Hi,

I recently ran into a heap of trouble due to Immersion Pulmonary Edema. After 2 hours of fighting to get and stay oxygenated, I ended up in Critical Care. Exactly 1 year before, I rescued an out of shape diver (who has sadly since passed in another incident). In response, I've started a blog (fit2dive.blogspot.com) with the goal of raising awareness of the need for fitness among divers. I'll be posting incident reports (starting with my own) that raise questions about what it means to be Fit To Dive. The stories will be interesting (I hope) but I think the comments, criticism and suggestions of other divers will be more enriching.

You can follow on blogspot, check out announcements here or follow me on Twitter where I'm o2fill.

Finally, if you have experienced IPE, please contact me so I can hook you up with the Duke study on IPE. They're great people, they'll give you some good advice and you may be able to help save the life of another Diver (plus, the testing is really cool!!)

Safe diving,

Phil

 

[Cave Diver]

There was a case of IPE experienced by a member of the board awhile back. I'm a bit curious about your statement about fitness and the link between that and IPE. Can you elaborate more on that?

 

[Garrobo]

OK. I'll bite. What the heck is IPE and what causes it?

 

[Elvistheking]

OK. I'll bite. What the heck is IPE and what causes it?

More details here.
;-)

 

[o2fill]

There was a case of IPE experienced by a member of the board awhile back. I'm a bit curious about your statement about fitness and the link between that and IPE. Can you elaborate more on that?

Re: fitness and IPE

OK- here's the weird thing about IPE (Immersion Pulmonary Edema). Almost everyone who gets it is in really, really good shape (Navy Seals, Triathletes, and so on). To my knowledge, no one fully understands why that is. One theory is that it not their fitness but their level of exertion that drives the spike in Pulmonary Artery BP that is the proximate cause of the edema. My own very unscientific theory is that a small minority of top athletes have, through training or through genetics, larger than average blood vessels in their extremities which means that a greater proportion of their blood volume is shunted to their core when the mammalian dive reflex is triggered resulting in exceptionally high spikes in BP. I like this theory because a) it fits with my own reality (big vessels, long training history), (b) it correlates well with the rarity of IPE among athletes (about 1%) and (c) it explains the observed spike in Pulmonary Artery BP. Again, just a guess on my part.

However, fitness levels aside, high(ish) blood pressure may play a factor too. In my case, I'd gone from a muscular but lean 165 lbs in 2002 (5' 10", 37 years old) to a still fit but less lean 185 lbs in 2010 (2.5 lbs per year). Over the same period, I'd gone from a BP of 110/70 to 135 / 90. So my baseline BP was higher. It is possible that this extra baseline put me over the edge even though I was very fit in aggregate.

It would really help the research if we could get more divers with IPE so we can compare their results with other athletes. What sets divers apart is that they are generally not exercising vigorously when IPE strikes.

There's more info at fit2dive.blogspot.com

Cheers,

Phil

 

[alibi 2]

Excellent Blog,,,i will follow it.

 

[o2fill]

Thanks!

 

[denisegg]

There was another thread started about the same incident. I posted my response on it. Here is a link:


http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/mi...ers/368900-diver-nearly-drowns-dive-boat.html

 

[o2fill]

Firstly - thanks to everyone for the support after my last post.

I've posted a couple more blog entries that might be of interest - Big Guy - Out of Gas is the story of "Steve"; a tremendously likable fellow who ran out of air at 100' and then got into all kinds of trouble related to his poor fitness level. Sadly, Steve died of a heart attack while diving just over a year later. Out of Gas Too! is about an incident that occurred just two days after Steve's initial incident. Same boat. Same ocean. Different guy - let's call him "Brian".

The full story is at here. The blog also has information on my own brush with death and the reaction of our dive club to the story about "Steve".

If you have the chance, please forward these stories or the blog address to your buddies and clubs so that we can, together, push increased awareness of the need for a fitness dialog between friends, buddies, and club members.

Dive Safely,

Phil