In Water Recompression

[tbone1004]

@Schwob the sites that shut their chambers down didn't get rid of the chambers. they're still there. It's the cost of staffing them. We do have to remember that even if it is part of a university, it's essentially a for-profit division of a business. Hyperbarics is not profitable treating divers so they have to treat CO poisoning, wound care etc etc. In a big multi-plex like at Duke, it's a non-issue to have one chamber operator running the hospital chamber, and the same guy also running the recompression chamber. No added operating costs because everything is running, etc etc. The doctors they have on staff are all there because they're research fellows that are funded by grants etc. so they can justify keeping it open.

Those types of places are few and far between though and you can only get so much funding to keep a site like that open. In NC we are lucky because the odds of Duke shutting down that complex are pretty small, same for the one in Catalina all due to the research funding they're doing.

@Graveyarddiver the problem with operators doing that is the liability if it doesn't go well. If you're on a boat it's real dicey. Now that IANTD has a course for it, we may be a bit better off, but I think someone like DAN would have to buy into it for it to become a reality if on a normal dive boat. Most of us are concerned with the cave diving aspect once Shands shut down, but there are no dive ops there, so we can just hop right back in with less of a liability concern

 

[Schwob]

@tbone1004 - yeah I get that... not surprised.
Trying to point out with my wonderings:
So, hypothetically if my buddy and I were to do unsanctioned IWR on our own account, I presume that would not be considered to be safer (but it does not matter because no one needs to sanction it and no one outside of us needs to be liable) than if we did the very same in an unattended pay by use, access controlled chamber.... yet the latter likely will never happen because that chamber, even if in an oversized phonebooth on a parking lot by the sea, maintained by donated funds will be on someone's property and someone could be held liable... ... right?
Yet, that kind of and access and operate yourself chamber (after training, certification yadda yadda and repeat all two years...) is highly unlikely to happen - legal reasons and god beware the medical profession is competed with even when that competition in that case isn't really competition and would be a better substitute for improvised IWR...

 

[KevinNM]

A chamber is kind of like a fire engine. The basic idea (pump water) is pretty simple, the actual details involved in converting it from a parked truck in a garage to an operating fire truck feeding a hose team advancing into a burning house without breaking you or it requires some training.

 

[LiteHedded]

my move is to just not get bent. highly recommend to try it

 

[Schwob]

A chamber is kind of like a fire engine. The basic idea (pump water) is pretty simple, the actual details involved in converting it from a parked truck in a garage to an operating fire truck feeding a hose team advancing into a burning house without breaking you or it requires some training.

Sort of like diving ... maybe more like tech diving...?

 

[Akimbo]

The basic idea (pump water) is pretty simple

I concur, operating a chamber is pretty simple -- I'm working on a thread on it now. The BIG problem is correct and timely diagnosis. Of course that is also the big problem with IWR. Mild symptoms can be ambiguous; making them easy to brush off as one of those pains that can just go away. Unfortunately waiting too long can allow those symptoms to progress beyond the point that IWR is a reasonable option.

Is it IWR if you suspect that you "might" have a very mild case of DCS and hang off at 20' on O2, or are you just enjoying what drifts by in the water column? I have seen a suspicion of Type 1 symptoms progress to a diver's leg collapse under them in a 15 minute time frame -- most likely Type 2 DCS. Technically, it isn't DCS until a doctor says it is DCS through a process of elimination.

 

[Schwob]

my move is to just not get bent. highly recommend to try it

Duh, yeah, of course. And if I go on a wilderness trip my move is to not get hurt and I plan my food and water resources well. Yet I bring a first aid kid and some redundancy on the important stuff. While I plan to never get bent and while I also plan to only dive with people who never get bent, if given a choice I rather know what to do if need be than not - especially when remote...

 

[Akimbo]

my move is to just not get bent. highly recommend to try it

So you never dive deeper than 30'? Actually, you can get bent at 30' but it requires bottom times of more than 8 6 hours.

Edit:

 

[tbone1004]

@Schwob I agree with @LiteHedded that the move is to not get bent, however it is often out of our control even when doing everything right.

That theoretical chamber would be more "safe" because you're dry, so if you convulse then you're at least not in the water, and being dry and warm is better etc. etc.

The issue is what @Akimbo alluded to. There is a huge difference in spinning some valves and operating the chamber. That's easy. The problem is that recompression is considered medical treatment, and you have to properly diagnose, etc etc.

IWR thankfully is outside of that and pretty goes along the lines of "go to 30ft on O2, if symptoms resolve, then run the IWR procedure" for that and pray. If symptoms don't resolve, then go 10-30ft deeper depending on your beliefs and repeat, then go deeper and repear until symptoms resolve then follow procedure and pray.

The key about IWR for me is that timing seems to be everything. If you are capable of getting back in the water, then you get immediate treatment and theoretically immediate relief of symptoms with a great rate of success. If I came up and got a hit at the quarry where we do training, which is just under an hour from Duke's chambers, which operate 24/7 for diving emergencies, I would STILL do IWR first because even with that proximity to Duke, it will be at least 2 hours until you get recompressed

 

[LiteHedded]

So you never dive deeper than 30'? Actually, you can get bent at 30' but it requires bottom times of more than 8 6 hours.

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View attachment 442699

i occasionally dive deeper than 30' yea. but i'm a race horse and nigh unbendable