It’s that time of year again, conferences and meetings, etc. In October, we attended the meeting of the British Diving Safety Group (BDSG). This was held in Dublin at the Howth Yacht Club – a heartfelt thanks to Diving Ireland, who hosted this. Fantastic location and it was well attended.
The BDSG is made up of representatives from the diving training agencies, Health and Safety Executive (HSE), IDEST, Defence Diving Standards Team (DDST), British Hyperbaric Association (BHA), RNLI, others who are involved with safety in the underwater world, and not forgetting ourselves, Midlands Diving Chamber. BDSG meet three times a year to discuss incidents, equipment safety, medical awareness and anything that requires a safety review.
Also read: Divers react as NHS seems ready to slash DCI cover
It ticks away in the background and not many divers know this group exists. However, things are continuing to be pushed forward by the group members, with some interesting discussions taking place.
During a recent quality audit, we had a closer look at the incident/DCI trends and there is a high percentage of delayed recognition of DCI. This can be by the diver or even down to the assessment teams at an A&E department.
We understand that divers will return home, go to work, continue to feel unwell and find any reason for any of the symptoms. In some cases, it’s not until they have spoken to a dive friend or a conversation back at the dive club, several days later, that the realisation hits and then they will seek help.
However, no instructor should be diagnosing DCI or even suggest the diver in question doesn’t have it as they haven’t gone deep enough or long enough. Only a hyperbaric physician is qualified to do this, the help is there, divers need to educate themselves on where they can get help in a time of need.
If anyone puts a diver on oxygen you have started a treatment plan, it’s not an experiment to see if any symptoms will ‘go away’, please remember oxygen is a drug and the administrator must be qualified. Once on oxygen, a hyperbaric physician needs to be advised.
At the BDSG meeting, we tasked the agencies to have a look at DCI recognition, denial and review how a diver can access a hyperbaric physician. The next meeting will be held at our chamber in March, so hopefully we can move forward -after all, delayed recognition of DCI costs the NHS money.
On 10 October, we attended the Defence Diving Symposium held at HMS Collingwood. There were over 250 attendees for their first event, and it was a fantastic day out.
There were some very informative presentations, in particular, Simon Mitchell, as usual held the audience’s attention. His first one was an explanation of Immersion Pulmonary Oedema (IPO), a medical condition that is current topic in the diving industry.
Simon’s other talk was about a cave dive to 230m using a hydrogen mix in a rebreather. The two divers that made the attempt were Richard Harris and Craig Challen of the Thai Cave rescue fame. The story of disproving hydrogen and oxygen exploding in a rebreather loop is really worth listening to if you get the chance.
In November we will be attending the British Hyperbaric Association AGM and annual conference, three of the team are off on their Diver Medic Training (DMT) courses so we will let you know how they all get on next month. In the meantime, dive safe and if we can help with any DCI enquires, you know where we are.
Emergency tel no: 07931 472602 | Landline: 01788 579555
www.midlandsdivingchamber.co.uk
Midlands Diving Chamber, Redwood House,
Hospital of St Cross, Barby Road, Rugby, Warwickshire, CV22 5PX
This article was originally published in Scuba Diver UK #79
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