A little over 1 yr ago, I assisted my instructor in attending a diver whom we suspected was suffering from DCS. The dive was shallow (40 fsw), and I, along with the instructor, had done the dive with the OW class, who was on their last check-out dive. The diver was a young man in his early 20's and well fit for his age.
He came up complaining of diziness and nausea, and his left hand began twitching uncontrollably and closing into a fist, so we laid him down on his left side and called for the boat's O2 supply, and immediately administered O2. The boat returned immediately to the dock where the paramedics were already waiting for us. I later learned that this young man had undergone 2 days of hyperbaric treatment, and that he would not be able to ever dive again. I was not explained in detail what happened to him, nor did I know the diagnosis.
Last weekend I had a chance to dive with the operator with whom I dove that day, and learned the name of the condition this young man had; Labyrinthitis. I've since read on labyrinthitis on Scuba-doc's website, and it appears that labyrinthitis is a condition that could be linked to IEDCS, but that it usually happens on deep dives, and that there are very few cases of IEDCS from shallow dives.
I'm curious if this guy could have had a case of IEDCS on top of the labyrinthitis, hence the reason for hyperbaric treatment, or whether labyrinthitis alone would require hyperbaric treament.
Thanks in advance.
He came up complaining of diziness and nausea, and his left hand began twitching uncontrollably and closing into a fist, so we laid him down on his left side and called for the boat's O2 supply, and immediately administered O2. The boat returned immediately to the dock where the paramedics were already waiting for us. I later learned that this young man had undergone 2 days of hyperbaric treatment, and that he would not be able to ever dive again. I was not explained in detail what happened to him, nor did I know the diagnosis.
Last weekend I had a chance to dive with the operator with whom I dove that day, and learned the name of the condition this young man had; Labyrinthitis. I've since read on labyrinthitis on Scuba-doc's website, and it appears that labyrinthitis is a condition that could be linked to IEDCS, but that it usually happens on deep dives, and that there are very few cases of IEDCS from shallow dives.
I'm curious if this guy could have had a case of IEDCS on top of the labyrinthitis, hence the reason for hyperbaric treatment, or whether labyrinthitis alone would require hyperbaric treament.
Thanks in advance.