At DEMA one should avoid this topic . I would like to discuss emergency In water decompression as a solo diver on my own boat and my diving in remote locations
Taboo Decompression
- Thread starter Eastwest
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If you mean IWR (not decompression but recompression) solo, without support, I’d say, “YIKES”. That’s way more terrifying than just being super conservative and hoping you don’t get bent in the first place.
What does DEMA have to do with this?
Dont think you're gonna get much help here. In-water recompression requires someone being with you considering your chance of oxtox is exceptionally high compared to anything else you can think of in diving (other than being an idiot and not analyzing tanks).
The tables are available, as are gear lists. That said, if you take a bad enough hit to need IWR (vs something like skin bends maybe better treated with surface oxygen), I don’t think you’ll be remotely in a state of mind or body to be able to accomplish it. It takes an immense amount of time, exposure protection, and ideally 2+ support people.
Doolete’s paper:
In-water recompression
Divers suspected of suffering decompression illness (DCI) in locations remote from a recompression chamber are sometimes treated with in-water recompression (IWR). There are no data that establish the benefits of IWR compared to conventional first aid ...
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
Interview from 2016 ish:
Another NIH publishing:
The above are resources to help convince you that IWR whilst truly remote, solo, and at an expedition level of diving is guano-level insane.
To borrow a climbing forum phrase, yer gonna die.
OP
I was attending a DAN forum at 2013 DEMA and that being off topic , people can and do use this tool using correct circumstantial judgement.
I honestly don't know what this sentence means, but I will try to respond to parts of it.
The feelings about IWR today are different from 2013, and I would say they are more favorably inclined to it as a concept in general. I don't think you will find much support for doing it alone under any circumstances.
If you are in your own boat in a place reasonably close to medical facilities, and you think you need recompression, you should be on the radio to the coast guard while plowing through the water as fast as possible. The last thing you want to be doing is disappearing beneath the waves on your own. If you are not reasonably close to medical facilities, I question the decision to be diving on your own.
Solo off a private boat you are nuts to be considering substantive IWR. Drop into 20ft on 100% for 20mins and possibly mitigate symptoms sure... But you could do roughly the same by doing 30 mins in the boat on the surface while you wait for help to arrive. And be in communication with them the whole time and not underwater when they arrive. And not add the risk of toxicity, losing the boat, or worse. If you aren't THAT bad in the first place, then just go to a chamber.
So dumb it's got to be a troll.
So dumb it's got to be a troll.
To restate your question: diving solo off a boat that's anchored and you reach the surface with decompression sickness symptoms -- you're interested in how to do in-water recompression.
That's probably the last thing you need to worry about as you'd have been diving way outside of most people's risk profiles to get to the point of needing IWR.
Why would you be diving a profile that got you bent in the first place? Was that deep technical diving (to rack up a substantial decompression obligation)? Why do that solo? On an unoccupied boat? In a remote location? Do you have lots of diving gases, decompression mixes and pure oxygen? Do you have lots of cylinders?
You know the answer regarding IWR timings/tables as per the IWR paper posted above. Lots of time, lots of gas, lots of support divers, lots of support surface people, lots of risk.
The only thing missing is for you to write a message to the people who find your boat with a diver attached to the anchor chain explaining why you did that.
First rule of diving -- especially in remote locations and solo -- is don't get bent in the first case. This means diving very conservatively and mitigating risk.
Even thinking about IWR implies you're not doing conservative diving profiles; which is why people here aren't impressed with your question that, to be blunt, is borderline reckless.
johndiver999
Contributor
You seem to be stating that oxygen on the boat is equivalent to oxygen at depth? I find it hard to believe that crushing bubbles at depth and then hanging out there (on oxygen) has zero potential benefit.
I've recently seen a few more examples of people being bent (within 4 minutes of surfacing) and just immediately going back down to around 20-40 ft, on nitrox and being "All Better" in
15 minutes. It is pushing me toward the assumption that in-water recompression is not such a bad idea for remote areas and certain situations.
If someone wants to dive solo, a long way from shore, with nobody on the boat, that is way more aggressive than something I would do. There are many other potential problems I can envision and most of them are more likely than getting bent - and they would be fatal.
However, if a person is going to do that stuff, I think it would be smart to have a plan for getting bent.
BTW, are we sure the OP is not some bot... the cumulative posts are very weird?
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