bvana1
Registered
Don't let what happened to me happen to you. I was finishing up my Open Water certification with Deep Blue dive shop in Cozumel MX. I was on my "check out" dive in pretty deep water (Palancar Reef) and was having trouble equalizing my ears. I was the only student with my instructor but he was also guiding 2 more experienced divers. I signalled to my instructor that I could not equalize my ears. Rather than have me ascend a bit to try then or even return to the surface to discuss, the instructor kept us going to the bottom (78 ft.) pacing the dive to the more experienced divers. I was in serious pain and kept signalling that my ears were not well. When we finally surfaced after the dive I coughed up some serious blood and my head was pounding. He seemed uninterested and said it was "normal". Bleeding is not "normal" in ANY adventure sport. Unless, ofcourse, something goes terribly wrong. Regardless, after an hour he had me do another dive (60 ft.) so I could get certified. Same thing happened again. That was two weeks ago. I couldn't dive the remainder of the trip, because my ears hurt so bad and couldn't "POP" them. Deep Blue dive staff and management offered no apologies or any words of regret. They wanted me to just book more dive trips, period. I went to the DAN clinic in CZM and the ear specialist said I had suffered Barotrauma.
My Ears are finally showing signs of improvement and I should have no permanent damage. I did however lose 3 days of diving that I'll never get back. There's two points to take away from this.
You can click the link below to go directly to Deep Blue's response located further in this thread:
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/co...l-puts-profits-over-safety-9.html#post6214426
My Ears are finally showing signs of improvement and I should have no permanent damage. I did however lose 3 days of diving that I'll never get back. There's two points to take away from this.
- One: read/learn about equalizing your ears well and practice sound diving procedures regarding this.
- Two: Beware of sketchy, profit motivated racketeers such as Deep Blue. Do your research and choose amoung well established more ethical professionals.
A ScubaBoard Staff Message...
http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/co...l-puts-profits-over-safety-9.html#post6214426
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