Need a Chamber in Florida?

[Wayward Son]

There is only one facility in the gulf panhandle region & it's not in FL, it's the Springhill Medical Center in Mobile AL, 1 mile west of where I work & am sitting right now.

The next closest one is about 450 miles from here.

Anyone planning a trip to dive the Oriskany needs to know where this is, make sure their dive buddy knows about it & preferably have an action plan in the dive kit that can easily be found with instructions on what to do in the event you're bent.

The Coast Guard does not regard a bent diver as an emergency. It's not their responsibility. They may send a boat out to get you but it's unlikely that they will get you back to shore any sooner than your own boat can. And they will not send you to Mobile, they will hand you off to a local ER in Pensacola who will spend at least an hour working you up & determining what's wrong with you before transporting you. And if they send you to Springhill, it will be at least an hour's ride in an ambulance & when you get there, Springhill will then do their own workup on you. I have this directly from the man who runs the chambers & treats bent divers there. You will not be referred to Springhill & go straight into a chamber when you get there, so you might as well just go their first if there is no other condition requiring immediate attention prior to transport.

Unless you're in need of immediate stabilization, the fastest possible way to get you inside a chamber is to get back to your launch point ASAP (while on O2 if available), have someone drive you directly to Springhill Medical Center, 3719 Dauphin St, Mobile AL

(251) 344-9630

and to the ER there. They will then do a workup on you & if you need to be in a chamber they will get you in one (they have 2).

Call DAN at the earliest opportunity in this sequence & get them rolling on their end.

There are other chambers, including at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola. They will not treat divers, period.

If you dive up here & need a chamber, Mobile is it. They have 2 chambers, each can hold up to 2 patients.

Fortunately there really aren't that many divers who get hit, they treat maybe 8 divers per year on average. But it's also not a good region to need one in due to the lack of facilities any where else near by.

 

[Kevrumbo]

There is only one facility in the gulf panhandle region & it's not in FL, it's the Springhill Medical Center in Mobile AL, 1 mile west of where I work & am sitting right now.

The next closest one is about 450 miles from here.

Anyone planning a trip to dive the Oriskany needs to know where this is, make sure their dive buddy knows about it & preferably have an action plan in the dive kit that can easily be found with instructions on what to do in the event you're bent.

The Coast Guard does not regard a bent diver as an emergency. It's not their responsibility. They may send a boat out to get you but it's unlikely that they will get you back to shore any sooner than your own boat can. And they will not send you to Mobile, they will hand you off to a local ER in Pensacola who will spend at least an hour working you up & determining what's wrong with you before transporting you. And if they send you to Springhill, it will be at least an hour's ride in an ambulance & when you get there, Springhill will then do their own workup on you. I have this directly from the man who runs the chambers & treats bent divers there. You will not be referred to Springhill & go straight into a chamber when you get there, so you might as well just go their first if there is no other condition requiring immediate attention prior to transport.

Unless you're in need of immediate stabilization, the fastest possible way to get you inside a chamber is to get back to your launch point ASAP (while on O2 if available), have someone drive you directly to Springhill Medical Center, 3719 Dauphin St, Mobile AL

(251) 344-9630

and to the ER there. They will then do a workup on you & if you need to be in a chamber they will get you in one (they have 2).

Call DAN at the earliest opportunity in this sequence & get them rolling on their end.

There are other chambers, including at the Naval Air Station in Pensacola. They will not treat divers, period.

If you dive up here & need a chamber, Mobile is it. They have 2 chambers, each can hold up to 2 patients.

Fortunately there really aren't that many divers who get hit, they treat maybe 8 divers per year on average. But it's also not a good region to need one in due to the lack of facilities any where else near by.

it doesn't help answer Pete's question but I figured a lot of divers might see this thread so it could help in planning a safe trip.

That's unacceptable, but unfortunately the only resource you have there. . . Springhill Medical Center - Wound Care

You actually need a multiplace chamber capable of 6 ATA to treat the worst emergent type II DCS and AGE Cases with room for both the patient and a Nurse/Paramedic Tender, with an auxiliary airlock entry to permit an ER/Hyperbaric Physician to examine the patient at ambient treatment pressure, and not just a monoplace chamber used only for Diabetic Wound Care with a limited pressure rating of 2.8 ATA at most, although adequate for less serious type I DCS.

btw, The US Coast Guard does consider a diver DCI case as an emergency and will deliver a casualty via rotary wing as necessary to a strategically located and proper civilian treatment facility (i.e. An ACLS Emergency Dept with a nearby or on-site multiplace chamber as described above. Examples of these are the Kuakini Medical Center covering the Hawaiian Islands, and the Catalina Recompression Chamber for offshore Southern California).

Obviously you can't run a large multiplace Recompression Chamber out there in Florida as an independent private business and medical clinic operation treating diving casualties only -there's no way it can financially sustain itself. Again, the concept to apply is similar to running a volunteer fire department -the call volume is not as great or frequent as a major metropolitan city or county, but the Emergency Service is still there on stand-by ready to respond.

The solution is that you're gonna need some combination of tax-supported county/state dept of health, hospital & EMS services, volunteer chamber crew, and annual monetary donations & organized charity drives from the regional diving community, and major initial corporate sponsorship from diving equipment manufacturers for example (i.g Florida companies like Dive Rite and Halcyon) to install a Multiplace Recompression Chamber there in Pensacola and make this venture work (same for putting one in North Florida Cave Country as well). Again, the cost of stand-by 24/7 operations for treating dive accidents only using volunteers and an on-call ER/hyperbaric physician is not as expensive as running a full service weekday 9-to-5 Diabetic Wound Care Hyperbaric Clinic facility.

Lastly as a potential resource, can't the Navy help by "donating" an old but still usable Recompression Chamber from NEDU Panama City? That's how we got our Chamber here in SoCal over 40 years ago from the Air Force and Lockheed Corp:

. . .Operating at the edge of space, at altitudes above 80,000 feet, the SR-71 Blackbird pilots were exposed to extreme changes in pressure, and the chamber was built to treat pilots who might suffer from altitude DCS as a result of those changes. When the SR-71 program development was complete, the chamber was donated to USC where it was pressed into service to treat divers’ DCI problems. . .

 

[Wayward Son]

maybe out there the CG treats it as an emergency. Here, they do not.

I don't know what all the factors are that got us here. I just know what the current status is.

Springhill has an experienced team & they do have airlocks on the chambers. They manage to support the cost by using them for treating other issues & not just divers. They're fully aware of the problem but fixing it is beyond their scope.

 

[Kevrumbo]

maybe out there the CG treats it as an emergency. Here, they do not.

I don't know what all the factors are that got us here. I just know what the current status is.

Springhill has an experienced team & they do have airlocks on the chambers. They manage to support the cost by using them for treating other issues & not just divers. They're fully aware of the problem but fixing it is beyond their scope.

Understanding the factors which got y'all into this dire situation is the first step in finding a solution out of this predicament.

The reason why you have private "UHMS accredited" facilities like Sacred Heart Wound Care & Hyperbaric Medicine in Pensacola refusing to take dive accident casualties is because of the high malpractice insurance for such a low volume of infrequent DCI cases, and also finding it not worthwhile & too expensive to staff on-call personnel to cover after hours and weekends on 24hr stand-by for emergency DCI cases, plus they also do not have a Recompression Chamber rated to 6 ATA for worst case scenarios such as AGE.

Hence the administrative strategy and solution of running such a large multiplace recompression chamber operation solely for dive accidents as a mostly unpaid Volunteer Crew on 24/7 stand-by like a volunteer fire department. To reduce personal malpractice liability for the Volunteer Crew, the facility has to be run by the county or state (i.e. Univ of Florida Medical Center) under the legal protection statute of Sovereign Immunity.

We've been running our Catalina Recompression Chamber with Los Angeles County Fire and the Univ of Southern California using the above strategy, along with strong support and donations from the local dive community since 1974. . .

 

[Kevrumbo]

Hyperbaric Medical Training Programs in Key Largo | Home

Despite numerous for-profit hospitals and medical centers with Hyperbaric Medicine Departments and training facility programs like Hyperbarics International above, there is still nothing being done about the current northern cave country and panhandle Florida crisis of available local Recompression Chambers willing to treat DCS/AGE in emergency civilian dive accident casualties 24/7.

Scuba Dive at Your Own Risk | Inweekly

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-st...handle-divers-face-obstacles-for-medical-care

 

[Saniflush]

Despite numerous for-profit hospitals and medical centers with Hyperbaric Medicine Departments and training facility programs like Hyperbarics International above, there is still nothing being done about the current northern cave country and panhandle Florida crisis of available local Recompression Chambers willing to treat DCS/AGE in emergency civilian dive accident casualties 24/7.

Scuba Dive at Your Own Risk | Inweekly

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-st...handle-divers-face-obstacles-for-medical-care

Wow. I had no idea that this problem was so widespread.

 

[sea_ledford]

I know Joe Dituri is currently working on getting a double lock chamber in cave country. Not sure what facility it will be associated with though.

-Chris

 

[Kristi@CCDS]

This is a major problem down here in Central Florida as well. Our closest chamber to treat divers is in Valdosta , GA and the chamber there is VERY small. I have had a number of friends and customers have to make the trip. Unfortunately, paying to staff a chamber 24-7 to treat dive accidents is difficult. I hope Joe is successful in this, because a centrally located chamber is MUCH needed here. Florida is a huge destination for technical and cave training and diving accidents occur much more frequently than most realize.

 

[Kevrumbo]

I know Joe Dituri is currently working on getting a double lock chamber in cave country. Not sure what facility it will be associated with though.

-Chris

This is a major problem down here in Central Florida as well. Our closest chamber to treat divers is in Valdosta , GA and the chamber there is VERY small. I have had a number of friends and customers have to make the trip. Unfortunately, paying to staff a chamber 24-7 to treat dive accidents is difficult. I hope Joe is successful in this, because a centrally located chamber is MUCH needed here. Florida is a huge destination for technical and cave training and diving accidents occur much more frequently than most realize.

Joe Dituri and Farhan Siddiqi MD, according to the Cave Diver's Forum, have provided 24/7 urgent recompression Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) from an outpatient facility called Undersea Oxygen Clinic in Tampa/St Pete -but only for type 1 DCS, and "mild" type 2 DCS symptoms. That's not the complete emergency coverage that you're looking for, but it's better than nothing in the meantime, and only a temporary band-aid solution to the crisis facing dive accident victims up there in N. Florida.

It doesn't make sense however, for a major public university medical school, teaching & research hospital and level one trauma center like Shands/University of Florida Medical Center Gainesville to potentially triage out an acute DCI casualty two hours drive time or medevac flight down south to Tampa, to a small stand-alone private hyperbaric facility like Undersea Oxygen Clinic with no Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) contingency or certification. That's an absolutely absurd scenario and gross public health service failure of the state's trauma care system.

Shands/UF Medical Center Gainesville deserves establishment of a dedicated Hyperbaric Medicine Department -or at least a sub-specialty within Emergency Medicine or Anesthesiology- along with a large 6 ATA Multiplace Recompression Chamber with Auxiliary Lock Entrance to treat all routine inpatient/outpatient cases, as well as 24/7 emergency support of acute to critical DCI/near drowning dive accidents & casualties. There is a clear medical need, and perhaps DAN can be an ombudsman for the resident diving community to alert state dept of health and gov't officials of the problem (and maybe @Duke Dive Medicine can offer advice and opinion on this too), as well as helping to secure federal Dept of Health & Human Services Grant Funds to purchase and install the campus hospital based 6ATA capable Chamber.

This is the most viable solution you have right there in nearby cave diving country, with a large pool of 24/7 available on-call Resident, Teaching Fellow, and Staff Attending Physicians specializing in Emergency Medicine and perhaps later with subsequent additional Hyperbaric training. It's the best permanent and sustainable model, again because of the state's tax supported and publicly funded University of Florida Medical School, regional level 1 trauma center designation, and better legal protection and immunity.

 

[Stacey Space]

Here is an article in today's paper about lack of treatment in the Florida Panhandle. I was treated at Springhill in Mobile a few years ago after a diving incident in Panama City Beach. It took hours and a $50,000.00 helicopter ride to get me there.

https://www.pnj.com/story/news/2018...-put-divers-lives-risk-expert-says/423944002/