Weird comment from a scuba doc

jhaaja

I want to ask opinions from our forums medical experts. I heard a really odd statement from a scuba doc.

This is how the story goes. My wife got a minor dcs hit with some skin symptoms and minor balance problems in some tests. She took on Navy 6 table run in the chamber and all symptoms resolved. The doc banned diving for one month and wanted to do a check-up medical after one month.

OK, she went to the check-up and the doc found that everything was normal. Then he started the weird part. He banned all gas changes (like EAN --> O2). The reason was that when you are switching regs you kinda like rise 5m in the water column (or go to an altitude of 5000m) And this happens during the few seconds when you don´t have any reg in your mouth during the gas switch... The doc also tried to bann diving on EANx which my wife opposed

She told me about this and I thought it was weird. Can anyone understand anything about this? To me it seems full of BS...

JH

PCDiver

Sounds very strange. Was your wife tested for a PFO?

jhaaja

No PFO testing. Only typical balance test, reflexes etc.

JH

bendomatic

time to get a new doctor....

rachel

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jhaaja

He is supposed to be one of the leading two in Finland... That is what concerns me. I know that he is not a diver and might not have much knoledge of technical diving, gas switches etc.

JH

Andy Del

Just to change gears a little, but don't balance problems indicate some inner ear or other neurological involvement? I wouldn't think of that as 'minor'...

The thing about EAN etc is just another doc who has no clue. My ex-GP told me flat out the pressure from scubadiving wold crush me 'flat as a pancake' and I would not survive past a few metres. He then admitted he knew nothing about diving. What an .

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SteveJ

I'm pleased to hear your wife has made a full recovery. You might wish to have another consultation with the doctor as it may be there was some form of missunderstanding in the advice. Certainly, it would be wrong for any of Docs on the forum to criticise the advice given as we are not in a position to know all the facts, examine the patient etc.

I would make the following general comments though:

1. a DCS involving balance is not a minor hit as it assumes a neurological or vestibular problem.

2. I wonder if the advice wasn't somehow related to avoiding isobaric counter diffusion, i.e going from a He to a nitrox mix and the risk of vertigo etc ...

You don't mention the type of diving, the profile, any gas switches etc. so any further comment is futile.

I think, to be honest, a further chat and clarification between your wife and the doc is the best advice.

Hope she's back diving soon.

Steve

jhaaja

Thanks for the comments so far. I also think that the doc has somehow mixed up isobaric counter diffusion into this. He used as an example a switch from EAN to O2, where this perceived pressure drop will happen. I have no clue about anything like that and never heard anything even close.

But could be that the doc tried to apply isobaric counter diffusion into the equation.

The dive that resulted to DCS was OC nitrox dive without gas switches. Bottom depth aroun 20-24m for 35-40mins on EAN32.

She is diving now and we do it even more conservative and also use O2 from 6m up if the dive was even near decodive.

JH

grandizer52

Your Docs playing it safe in a world of sue crazy people...in Hyperbaric treatment your suppose to BIB in 02.there's a link on the navy dive manual for that. I'll try and PDF link it for you.

aleksi

JH,

for what it's worth, (probably) the same doctor gave the same recommendation of not switching gasses to a friend of mine after dcs.

He also got severe balance symptoms after a no-stop oc nitrox dive. His symptoms resolved totally with several chamber rides. The recommendation sounded very odd to me too.

-Aleksi Ilmonen