Told to NOT seek treatment

[wheeledgoat]

Just idly curious if anyone has had DAN or a physician tell them they didn't need to seek treatment. Seems to me in this litigious world that if you think enough of your situation to call DAN or a doc, they are going to send you - if for no other reason than so they don't get sued later.

Maybe I'll even expand my inquiry to anyone having a phone consultation where the outcome was anything more useful than "I'm not sure, could be X, better go get checked out to be safe."

 

[JohnnyC]

When you call DAN, they're essentially doing a differential diagnosis over the phone, with a patient to may or may not be truthful about their situation. I think they're always going to tell you to go get check out, unless you call them and tell the you broke your toe kicking a scuba tank as you wandered to the bathroom at 4am and you want them to pay for it.

 

[Wookie]

I've been told a number of times (for passengers on my boat) that emergency treatment is not necessary. Monitor, try O2, and if O2 works, then seek treatment. You have to have a victim completely honest with you and you have to be completely honest with DAN. They are there to help, but embellishing the story does no one any good.

 

[northernone]

I've been around a couple times where DAN didn't urge treatment. The standard "see a doctor" advice is applied every time I think.

Cameron

 

[aquacat8]

Once I was lying by the pool and I overheard some young doctors joking around with the kind of gallows humor that they have when they are out of earshot (they think) of others. One of their jokes was:
Question: what is a healthy person? Answer: someone who hasn’t had a full work up!

 

[wheeledgoat]

I'm pleasantly surprised! Glad to hear it's not blind boilerplate stuff.

I'm especially surprised by

I've been told a number of times (for passengers on my boat) that emergency treatment is not necessary. Monitor, try O2, and if O2 works, then seek treatment.

...meaning if O2 doesn't work, go home and watch TV?

Still, I personally have a hard time imagining a scenario where a phone call to DAN is going to change my situation, or my plan.

 

[Wookie]

I'm pleasantly surprised! Glad to hear it's not blind boilerplate stuff.

I'm especially surprised by

...meaning if O2 doesn't work, go home and watch TV?

Still, I personally have a hard time imagining a scenario where a phone call to DAN is going to change my situation, or my plan.

If O2 doesn't work, it's likely a strain with muscle fatigue. I have personally solved a lot of pain only situations using O2 and when the pain resolves, stop the O2.

Being bent is like any other medical situation. I'm maybe too blasé about it, but first aid cures a lot of cuts that don't need emergency care, but if cut too deeply, stitches are the correct action, along with a tetanus shot and lidocaine. Likewise, being a little bent (skin or pain only which resolves on O2) doesn't need a table 6, but neurological certainly does. The only thing to be really careful of is that pain can mask the neurological symptoms.

I personally waited a week for treatment from a Type II vestibular hit. I promise, it wasn't my choice. I could not get a chamber doc to believe I was bent. A call to DAN cleared everything right up, and I was seen the next day. They still didn't want to think it was a vestibular hit, but 20 minutes at 60 feet cured me right up.

So don't be too blasé....

 

[Johnoly]

..... or a physician tell them they didn't need to seek treatment. ....

Different dive boats have different 'protocols' that the captain and crew are instructed to follow.

Several years ago a mid-20's lady diver was on the boat with about 18 other divers. 1st dive of the day to 60ft and drained her tank in 30 mins and not enough left to do 3 min safety stop as she was taught. Back on the boat she told the crew that she didn't do an SS and therefore was "Bent" cause that's what she learned in class. She said thought she had some stiff muscles and requested to go on O2. The crew talked with her going thru all the protocols, etc but she still insisted on O2. Out came the O2 kit and because of that, the boat immediately headed for shore, called 911 for an ambulance at the closest dock. Some of us looked at her dive log and she didn't even peg the ascent rate indicator. The other passengers hearing her profile were NOT HAPPY, knowing that profile was almost impossible to be bent and they missed their 2nd dive. The dive boat gave all the divers a refund. Dive injuries can run the full spectrum of conditions, some real, some unreal.

 

[DavidFL]

I called DAN exactly once, when some pretty serious pain in one of my ankles showed up after two days of dive profiles that could potentially have been DCS. I'm not sure what I said that made the difference, but the guy on the other end of the phone said "...it sounds musculo-skeletal to me...", advised me to give it a little more time, told me to go to the ER and call back if it got worse. It didn't get worse, and I learned to do a lot of lap swimming with fins before my longer, multi-day dive trips.

 

[Kevrumbo]

Here in offshore/nearshore Southern California:

Simple straightforward triage as a Layperson First Responder (i.e. DiveBoat Captain & Crew, Dive Master, Rescue Diver etc on the scene), based on initial reported symptoms of a just surfaced conscious diver onboard in post-dive distress . . .Rule Out DCS and/or AGE, and start victim breathing on O2. Once the chain of care is started, only the Patient can refuse further treatment AMA (Against Medical Advice).

Legally, as soon as a USCG licensed Diveboat Captain or LA County Lifeguard/Paramedic puts you on Oxygen, this can be considered the beginning of the standard chain of emergency care 24/7 for all dive accidents here in SoCal with suspected DCS/AGE --whether victim is conscious or unconscious; alert & oriented or in full cardiorespiratory arrest: the initial response and call for immediate aid from LA County EMS/USCG assets is always the same. (Even with late onset of DCS symptoms and presentation at a private mainland Southern California Emergency Dept/Hospital, I would still recommend insisting on consultation with a LA County ER/Hyperbaric Physician, with possible transport by helicopter to the Catalina Island Recompression Chamber if a mainland private hyperbaric facility is closed-after-business-hours. . .)

The Catalina Recomptession Chamber is the only non-military/non-commercial, civilian municipal government run and local diver supported facility in the US on 24/7 & 365 stand-by for Emergency Diving Accidents & Casualties only. Since it's run by the public tax-supported Los Angeles County Health Dept, Hospital/Medical Center & EMS System, and has Advanced Cardio-respiratory Life Support capability with an ER/Hyperbaric Physician on call, legally you will always have the opportunity to be evaluated and treated as necessary whether you have primary or secondary accident DAN medical insurance coverage -or not. . .