An invaluable experience, learning & practicing not only the Science & Art of Hyperbaric Medicine and Treatment of Dive Accidents, but actually seeing the Los Angeles County Medical Alert Center (MAC) System coordinate and integrate the various Departments on real recovery or rescue missions: all during my training over at Santa Catalina Island, offshore Southern California this past weekend.
Although actual Chamber Treatments are in 18m/60' equivalent pressure (for Decompression Sickness/Syndrome) and 50m/165' (Arterial Gas Embolism), training runs are only done at 12m/40' with only two five minute oxygen periods, and one O2 period at 6m/20' before returning to surface sea level. The most fun & satisfying position on the Team is the inside Tender, where you would under direction, apply O2 therapy via demand regulator to the patient and hopefully see the direct curative results of the treatment. Going down to depth inside the Chamber is kind of like sitting in your Scuba Tank (if you could!) during a fast fill: it gets very hot inside to 32deg C/90deg F very quickly! Conversely, on a wide open fast 3m/min (10'/min) ascent, the ambient environment can cool down just as fast and get a little chilly & foggy inside as the dew point is past (fun with Adiabatic Expansion first hand).
The trickiest and the position requiring the most mechanical dexterity is the Chamber Operator. You're moving & turning various handwheels & levers controlling air inlet and exhaust valves; monitoring pressure gauges of the supply gas for the treatment's duration; and keeping the patient at the right depth as well as bringing the Physician down to depth in an auxiliary Lock Chamber if needed to attend to the patient.
The most demanding is the Recorder. He is responsible for keeping track of treatment schedule; calling out the intervals for when the Tender is to administer O2 and Air Breaks to the patient; timing the descents & ascents; keeping track of all Total Dive Times, Decompression Times, Nitrogen Table uptake etc. for all personnel entering the Chamber to assist the Patient -and keeping a written record of all of this as it's happening on an elapsed timeline. This is the most difficult of the three positions on the team since you're setting up the entire profile of the "dive", and trying to record of the all various time segments involved in the treatment by monitoring/toggling a set of six stopwatch timers in front of you -and somehow officially logging it all down simultaneously on paper.
Finally, the Catalina Chamber is the only facility able to administer immediate aid to a stricken diver covering an entire weekend period here in Southern California (Friday night to Sunday Evening): there is no back-up Chamber on the Los Angeles County Mainland that can be up and running as fast on any given weekend, or IMHO, on any given day 24/7. But talking to the Veteran Volunteer Crew, they would prefer having an asymptomatic diver come in the afternoon with a suspected case of DCS, rather than having that same diver later helicoptering back to Catalina from the mainland, with acute full-blown Type 1 & 2 Signs and Symptoms -
at 3AM in the Morning. . .
Further info for professional training and national certification in Hyperbaric Technology:
National Board of Diving and Hyperbaric Medical Technology
