It Couldn't Happen To Me!

Contributed by Sue

Last July I had a fabulous trip to Kavieng, PNG. Not only was it memorable for the excellent diving, it was also unforgettable for the aftermath. The diving was some of the best I've experienced, reefs and wrecks, warm water (about 28degrees), viz often in excess of 30m and unspoilt dive sites - vibrant corals, colourful fish, a photographer's paradise.

Over 5 and a half consecutive days I did 13 dives, maximum depth for the deepest being 33m. On 2 of the days I did 3 dives but these included short shallow dives on sunken WW2 plane wrecks. All dives were within the no deco limits and all had a 5 minute safety stop at 5m. The only time we had a faster than normal ascent was in a fierce current. After completing the 5m deco stop the mooring line snapped and we hurtled to the surface. Apart from this, everything was AOK.

Imagine my surprise when about 2 to3 hours after my last dive, on the Friday, I felt a tingling in my right toe and in my right calf like a mini electric current. I immediately thought the worst - decompression sickness, stranded in a chamber in Port Moresby, can't get home, etc. etc. Our resort was on Nusa Island a short boat ride away from the mainland, so we contacted the dive operators who brought over the oxygen and ran a few neurological tests on me. I went on to the O2 for about 20 minutes but as the tingling symptoms were intermittent it was hard to tell if it had any effect. As I had no other symptoms we decided on a wait and see approach. The next day, Saturday, I didn't dive but still the tingling persisted although less frequent. The following day, Sunday, we flew out, Kavieng to Moresby, then to Sydney with a brief stop in Brisbane. I was dreading things getting worse but it seemed to have improved. As we arrived so late we spent the night in Sydney with 5 of us driving home the next day. Home is Jervis Bay, approximately a 3 hour drive south of Sydney.

That morning, Monday, the tingling started up again so to be on the safe side I phoned DAN for some advice. It's an excellent service. I was immediately put through to a diving doctor, who advised me to get checked by a diving doctor as he couldn't rule out DCS. From his register he gave me the names of 2 in our area, one, who couldn't give me an appointment for 2 weeks (lucky I wasn't a serious case!) and the other who couldn't see me as he was overseas
I ended up seeing my own doctor that afternoon who phoned through to the chamber at Prince of Wales Hospital for advice on what tests to do. I obviously didn't pass all of these because I was advised to go back up to Sydney for further tests. So that night we drove up to Sydney for an appointment next morning at the chamber. Again, more neurological tests and I ended up in the chamber.

For someone who is claustrophobic this had been one of my worst nightmares. How was I going to survive 5 hours in this tiny space with a very uncomfortable O2 mask on my face and no way to go to the loo? To reduce possible fire risk (with the O2), we had to remove our normal clothes, put on white cotton hospital scrubs and little white booties and couldn't take in any flammable materials such as newspapers.

One valium later I and a young guy who'd been bent from a too rapid ascent plus the nurse, entered the chamber, sat on our chairs, put on our masks and thought about the next 5 hours. Twice during this time we were able to take off our O2 masks for a 5 minute "air break" and midway through we had a 15 min lunch break, the lunch a cheese sandwich being passed in through an air lock in the side of the chamber. During the session the nurse checked our vital signs and also ran me through the neurological tests again. I thought 5 hours on O2 would lead to O2 toxicity but for some reason it doesn't, although we were instructed that if we felt anything like a seizure we should take the mask off!

I could hardly wait for that 5 hours to be over but eventually the time was up and we emerged. As if this wasn't enough, I had 2 more sessions, 2 hours each over the next 2 days. These times I was in a bigger chamber with a variety of hospital patients, 7 or 8, suffering from a variety of complaints from preparation for tooth surgery to gangrene. These times I was the only diver. I had no idea that treatment in the hyperbaric chamber was used for such a variety of conditions or that some people had, not only days but weeks in the chamber!!

Following my treatments I wasn't allowed to drive home (because of the height of Mt Ousley) for 48 hours, so had an even longer stay in Sydney than anticipated.

I was also instructed not to dive for a month and to come back for an appointment with the diving doctor at the chamber before diving again. So when the month was up, back to Sydney for the appointment. The doctor pointed out that being female, being older and having experienced DCS were all predisposing factors to having it happen again. I was strongly advised to limit any dive to 30m, set my computer to a conservative personal setting, don't do too many dives per day and where possible dive on nitrox. Having gone through the experience of the chamber and wanting to keep on diving for as long as I can I have followed these instructions to the letter.

The big lesson I have learned from this experience is that you can still get bent even if you follow all the rules. So, if you're an older female diver be careful and if you're not, be careful anyway!