I wrote this so that you can learn from my experience. Accident analyses is
a great teaching tool. I hope that if you ever feel like you have a mild hit
you build up the courage to make the phone call and talk to a medical
professional. It was not easy for me, but I’m glad I did. My story below is
a detailed account of what happens after I admitted I had Decompression
Sickness.

I was treated at Mercy Hospital.
Dr. Ivan Montoya, M.D.
Emergency: 1800-NO BENDS
Phone 305.854.0300
email: montoya@hyperbarics.com

Sunday morning I awoke I awoke to a numbness and tingling in my right hand.
It felt like I had slept on it the wrong way. I would have gone back to bed
except I felt the same thing on the drive home at 12:30 AM in the morning. I
had completed 6 dives on Saturday and thought something might be wrong. I
laid flat on my back and decided to go back to sleep and see if the feeling
receded. At 9 AM it hadn’t. Now I felt concern and decided to download my
dive computer and fill out my log book.

I wanted a consultation and remember Dr. Montoya speaking at my dive club.
His phone number stuck in my head, 1800-NOBENDS. The Emergency room at Mercy
took my name and number and said the doctor would call me soon. 5 minutes
later my phone rang. I explained how I had completed 6 dives the day before
and the feeling in my right hand. He confirmed that I had a mild case of
Type II decompression sickness. If I came to the hospital he would treat me.

An hour later Andrea and I were at the hospital. I checked into the
emergency room and told them I had DCS. They took my vitals (Blood Pressure
and pulse) and took me to a bed. I put on a gown, kept my boxers for dignity
and started sucking on the O2. Then they put in an IV to hydrate me. 5
minutes later Mike the Chamber Technician came in to wheel me to the x-ray.
They took a chest X-ray before taking me to the chamber. I forgot to ask why
they did that? After 2 quick zaps for a front and side view it was off to
the chamber.

The chamber itself was cool to see. The door opens in the waiting room, when
the rest of the chamber is behind a wall in the control room. I upgraded my
gown to hospital scrubs for the ride. At least now I was rule #6, look good
while doing it. However changing shirts with an IV in your hand is not
pleasant. They took my vitals again and in I went.

Everyone was great about explaining the process for the treatment. I would
be pressurized to 60 feet, have 3 cycles of 20 minutes of pure O2 and a 5
minute break. Then we will ascend to 30 feet and have 5 cycles of 20 minutes
02 with 5 minute breaks. Total “dive” time would be roughly 5 hours.

In the chamber with me was Candice the technician and another patient. It
was this guy’s 4 full ride so he was getting to be a pro at this. As they
started pressurizing the chamber I learned what it feels like to be a scuba
tank. This on the sound of a tank being filled and imagine it about 5 times
louder. We were provided with hearing protection for the decent. We took 10
minutes to get to the bottom. The chamber heated up instantly. Then over the
intercom we heard, “Everyone on O2.” Candice helped me put on the head gear
and attach the 4 points to my face mask regulator. It looked like the one
pilots were in the movies. The chamber imitated DIR with about a 9 foot hose
for the face mask. It plugged into the ceiling where for the O2 Dealing with
that long of a hose was a pain, I didn’t have anywhere to put, so I held on
most of the time.

At 60 feet we laid down and were not allowed to speak. Running a PO2 of 2.8
is not fun. I could feel my lungs ache. The first hour and a half was by far
the longest. After we reached 30 feet I sat up and stretched my neck. Now I
could finally see the monitor and watch the movie. You should pack a DVD
movie in your DAN 02 kit in case your have to go to the chamber at Mercy.
There are two small TVs mounted to the windows on one side of the chamber.
You can hear the sound as long as no one is inhaling. The other patient and
I practiced our Darth Vader imitations for five hours. I don’t think I’ll be
able to watch Star Wars for quite a while.

In the chamber the air lock allows items to come in and out of the chamber
during treatment. It also serves as a bathroom. During one exchange we even
got some turkey sandwiches to woof down during a five minute air break.

After five hours I was glad to get out of the chamber. I skipped the tour of
the airlock in favor of the full size bathroom in the outer room. I felt
quite high after the treatment and there was no tingling feeling in my right
hand. It was a little swollen from the IV and that disappeared in the
morning. They took my vitals again and asked how I felt. The good doctor
asked me to call him first thing in the morning and tell him how I felt. He
invited me back for a “wash-out” treatment Monday at Noon.

I went home, watched my forth movie of the day, and went to bed. The high I
felt quickly subsided into fatigue. My chest started to ache when I breathed
deeply and filled with fluid. I spoke and coughed like I had a chest cold. I
was a deflated balloon.

The next day I got up and went to work. Called the doc and told him I felt
fine, but I would be there for the second treatment. I love diving too much
to mess myself up now. After very little work and explained to everyone what
had happened. The words “that was stupid” echoed throughout the
conversations. I left at 10:30 AM to head back to Miami and make my next
treatment. My scrubs were waiting for me and changed again. The technicians
took my vitals and temperature yet again and we prepared to load up the
chamber.

This time I was joined by 3 other patients who were going in for wound care.
Instead of the face mask they had a rubber collar put around the neck and a
big soft plastic helmet attached to their collar. They looked like
astronauts from a B movie without a budget. For this treatment we went to 30
feet for two hours of straight O2 with no breaks. At least this time I got a
good seat for watching “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” With five people in
the chamber it was impossible to hear the audio, but luckily there were
subtitles. It made the time pass. The mask became very uncomfortable after
two hours.

As the chamber was coming up we took off our head gear. One of the patients
was a 78 year old woman was a broken foot. This was her 2nd or 3rd treatment
and she still didn’t know what was going on in the chamber. I tried to
simply explain how the 02 dissolves into the blood stream under pressure so
more of it gets to the cells that are rebuilding her injury. She still
didn’t understand how any more air was getting to her lungs. After Dive
Master and Cave training I had lost touch with how much I had learned about
physiology over the past 4 years of diving.

Still with all my knowledge the dive computer between my ears told me two 55
foot hour long dives even on 33% Nitrox is not a good idea after 4 air
dives. I silenced that side of my head in the name of fun, diving, and trust
in my new Aries 2 dive computer which read 5 green bars and one yellow of
nitrogen. I still had one full yellow bar before I hit Decompression. I was
I doing 10 minutes ascents. Heck that is like doing deco stops anyway. I’ll
be fine, I told myself.

I remembered Dr. Montoya’s presentation to my dive club. He said that Denial
was the number one reason people do not get treatment. When I first got to
the hospital he said that my mild hit often goes untreated. Most of the time
it doesn’t reoccur. But when it does, people get hit harder and more damage
occurs. I trusted what the good doc had to say and went for the full
treatment. He also recommended that I not dive for 6 weeks! That is at least
24 dives I’ll be giving up and this is the summer. I promised myself I would
do my “time” as a man and not rationalize myself back into the water sooner.
When I do, I’ll take it nice and easy.

This six weeks will give me time to get ALL my tanks Nitrox cleaned. It is
ironic two weeks ago I was diving with William and I teased him about diving
Nitrox on a 18 foot beach dive. He said it was already in his tanks before
he knew he was going to do the dive. Soon it will be in my tanks as well and
I won’t sweat it when I do dives that do not take advantage of it. I dove
air because it was cheap. $2.50 compared to $8 a fill really adds up on 4
tank weekends. But the other DIR motto of, "If you can’t afford to do it
right, then don’t do it" is also ringing in my ears. If I can’t afford the
gas then I won’t do the dive.

Conditions:
Seas 1-3 foot swells
Sunny Day
Water Temp 83-84 degrees

I had 1-3 cups of water between dives and 2 Lipton Brisk ice teas. I ate
cereal for breakfast and had a sandwich for lunch. All the dives were drift
and I had no heavy effort while diving.

Dive Profiles:

Dive 1 Princess Anne
8:08 AM
86 feet
37 mins BT, 12 min ascent
Air

Dive 2 Rybovich
9:47 AM
SI 1:01
28 ft
54 mins, 5 min ascent
Air

Dive 3 Razel Dazel
2:10 PM
SI 3:28
56 ft
64 mins, 10 min ascent
Air

Dive 4 Copenhagen
3:49 PM
SI 0:34
29 ft
59 mins, 5 min ascent
Air

Dive 5 Razel Dazel
6:55 PM
SI 2:06
58 ft
53 mins, 10 min Ascent
32.5% rounded to 33% Nitrox

Dive 6 Razel Dazel
8:10 PM
SI 0:26
61 ft
51 mins, 6 min ascent
32.6% rounded to 33% Nitrox

Any private or public feedback or comments are welcome!