DIVERS ALERT NETWORK: ASIA-PACIFIC
Divers Alert Network, widely known as DAN, is an international non-profit medical and research organisation dedicated to the safety and health of divers. WWW.DANAP.ORG
IT CAN HAPPEN
TO ANYONE
As international borders slowly start to re-open, DAN Member Brad Wall shares his story and provides a timely reminder that accidents can happen
I
first became certified a long time before diving became a big part of my life. Since associating myself with a local dive shop in the early 1990s, I became a Divemaster and instructor. I usually take two dive trips a year with my wife and sometimes our son, who are both experienced divers. We almost always go to Cozumel, Mexico, which is where I first experienced decompression illness (DCI). I was 68 years old and had completed more than 900 dives when we travelled to Cozumel. On the first full day of diving, we started in the morning with a 29-minute dive to 25m with a one-hour surface interval before a second, uneventful dive. The following day we were ready for my favourite site, Santa Rosa Wall. After descending to the sandy bottom around 15m, you drop another 9m or so to move northward along the wall. Large swim-throughs dot the house-sized boulders as you drift beside the reef. When it was time to end the dive, my buddy and I ascended to 6m for our safety stop. Everything was normal, as was the rest of our ascent. As soon as we surfaced, I thought I saw the boat moving away from me, but quickly realised I was disoriented, and the boat wasn’t moving. It felt like vertigo, but I managed to get on board the boat. I removed my gear and was talking to my buddy when I started involuntarily leaning forward until I lost my balance and collapsed face-down on the deck. The problem was in my spine, and I felt paralysed and couldn’t get up. Our Divemaster immediately gave me 100 percent oxygen and notified the captain. We quickly returned to the resort dock. At some point during the ride back they had called to shore and contacted DAN, who seamlessly arranged for everything that I needed. When we arrived at the dock, a paramedic was waiting to transport me to the local hospital, which was only a few minutes away. They had to drag me off the boat, with one person under each arm, because I could not walk. We arrived at the hospital where they did an echocardiogram, then after performing a neurological assessment to rule out an embolism, they admitted me to the hospital and determined that I had decompression illness (DCI).
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