So, long story long...
My buddy got bent several times in the course of a year. All on pretty conservative dives (by our standards). The last dive was a 100’ cave dive for 2 hours with about 40 minutes of deco on CCR. The diver actually did 20 minutes more deco than I did at the same GF and the same PPO2
About an hour after surfacing, we’re eating dinner at the diner and my buddy says he doesn’t feel good. Seconds later, we caught his head from falling into his soup. We called DAN who said to take him to Orlando. They would call ahead to let the staff know that DCS was incoming.
We arrived at Orlando in less than an hour. We actually had my wife meet me with her Camaro as it was a bit faster than Avalanche. At any rate, my buddy was breathing O2 for an hour prior to arriving at the ER. Head spinning, Migraine, Loss of movement in the feet. We tell the ER staff that we have a DCS incidence. The tell us that DCS is pretty unlikely (bear in mind, this was his 4th or 5th hit in a year). They check him for Heart Attack, (It’s dcs), They check him for Stroke (its dcs). They check him for Vertigo (it’s dcs). By the way, since when does vertigo cause paralysis in your feet? LOL. We spent 2 hours with them trying to diagnose everything but DCS. They also wouldn’t give him any O2, so I pulled the AL40 from the car and he breathed that.
Finally, they came and said, “Okay, we think it’s DCS”. REALLY?!?!?! You fuggin think? “It’ll take 30 minutes for the DCS team to get here.” The team arrives and says, “So you guys did a bunch of diving today huh?” “No, just one dive”. “Oh then it’s highly unlikely that he has DCS, what was the dive?” I respond, “2 hours at 100’ on CCR”. “OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, YOU CAN’T DO THAT, THAT’S NOT POSSIBLE, YOU’RE LUCKY YOU'RE BOTH ALIVE... I look over at my buddy and say, “You’re probably not going to live through this”. So, the guy has Daniel change into a gown and starts loading Daniel into a chamber. I say to Daniel, dude, did you remove your cell phone and Bluetooth headset. “No, should I?”. The doctor says, “oh yeah, thanks for reminding me”. I look over at Daniel and say, “Dude, you’re probably going to die”. For those of you not in the know, electronics in the chamber is a sure fire way of blowing up everyone.
So, Daniel gets loaded into the chamber. And the doctor says, “Okay, he’s doing a table 6, you should be able to pick him up in the morning.” I said, “Doc, he’s got bilateral paralysis in his feet, it’s type 2 dcs, it’s not going to be fixed by one chamber run”. He says, “Oh yeah, this will fix him right up”. I say, “Daniel, you’re probably not going to survive this”.
The next morning, I pick Daniel up at the end of his Table 6. I load him into my car and say, “Hey, where do you want to go for breakfast before I bring you back here?” He says, “What do you mean?” I told him he’s got about 90 minutes before he ends up back in the chamber. Thankfully, we were able to finish breakfast. He did 4 more table 6’s over the next 5 days before he came home. Hyperbaric Physicians are idiots.
My buddy got bent several times in the course of a year. All on pretty conservative dives (by our standards). The last dive was a 100’ cave dive for 2 hours with about 40 minutes of deco on CCR. The diver actually did 20 minutes more deco than I did at the same GF and the same PPO2
About an hour after surfacing, we’re eating dinner at the diner and my buddy says he doesn’t feel good. Seconds later, we caught his head from falling into his soup. We called DAN who said to take him to Orlando. They would call ahead to let the staff know that DCS was incoming.
We arrived at Orlando in less than an hour. We actually had my wife meet me with her Camaro as it was a bit faster than Avalanche. At any rate, my buddy was breathing O2 for an hour prior to arriving at the ER. Head spinning, Migraine, Loss of movement in the feet. We tell the ER staff that we have a DCS incidence. The tell us that DCS is pretty unlikely (bear in mind, this was his 4th or 5th hit in a year). They check him for Heart Attack, (It’s dcs), They check him for Stroke (its dcs). They check him for Vertigo (it’s dcs). By the way, since when does vertigo cause paralysis in your feet? LOL. We spent 2 hours with them trying to diagnose everything but DCS. They also wouldn’t give him any O2, so I pulled the AL40 from the car and he breathed that.
Finally, they came and said, “Okay, we think it’s DCS”. REALLY?!?!?! You fuggin think? “It’ll take 30 minutes for the DCS team to get here.” The team arrives and says, “So you guys did a bunch of diving today huh?” “No, just one dive”. “Oh then it’s highly unlikely that he has DCS, what was the dive?” I respond, “2 hours at 100’ on CCR”. “OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD, YOU CAN’T DO THAT, THAT’S NOT POSSIBLE, YOU’RE LUCKY YOU'RE BOTH ALIVE... I look over at my buddy and say, “You’re probably not going to live through this”. So, the guy has Daniel change into a gown and starts loading Daniel into a chamber. I say to Daniel, dude, did you remove your cell phone and Bluetooth headset. “No, should I?”. The doctor says, “oh yeah, thanks for reminding me”. I look over at Daniel and say, “Dude, you’re probably going to die”. For those of you not in the know, electronics in the chamber is a sure fire way of blowing up everyone.
So, Daniel gets loaded into the chamber. And the doctor says, “Okay, he’s doing a table 6, you should be able to pick him up in the morning.” I said, “Doc, he’s got bilateral paralysis in his feet, it’s type 2 dcs, it’s not going to be fixed by one chamber run”. He says, “Oh yeah, this will fix him right up”. I say, “Daniel, you’re probably not going to survive this”.
The next morning, I pick Daniel up at the end of his Table 6. I load him into my car and say, “Hey, where do you want to go for breakfast before I bring you back here?” He says, “What do you mean?” I told him he’s got about 90 minutes before he ends up back in the chamber. Thankfully, we were able to finish breakfast. He did 4 more table 6’s over the next 5 days before he came home. Hyperbaric Physicians are idiots.
