The best way for divers to avoid decompression illness is to “know their enemy”, and a ready means of understanding the risks as well as how to tackle DCI in a fellow-diver has just been made freely available online in a book by leading expert Dr John Lippmann.
A Diver’s Guide To Decompression Illness, a diver-friendly book offering practical advice on the recognition, management and prevention of the bends, is the third edition of a title first published in 2011.
The 66-page book contains all the practical information a diver needs, in chapters covering nitrogen uptake and elimination and bubble formation; DCI itself; patent foramen ovale (PFO), oxygen first aid; and the realities of diving accidents in remote places (the takeaway – keep your diving there conservative!). There are 11 detailed case-studies as well as photos, graphs, check-lists and a glossary.
Dr Lippmann is chairman and CEO of the Australasian Diving Safety Foundation (ADSF), a charity that funds research and safety programmes promoting diving health and safety. He also founded and chaired DAN Asia-Pacific for 25 years, and was its executive director for 20.
He has been researching, teaching, writing and consulting on safe diving, decompression and accident management for more than 40 of his 50 years as a scuba diver.
Specialising in resuscitation, first aid, oxygen administration, dive rescue and various aspects of decompression, he has written and co-written many books, articles and research papers.
A Diver’s Guide To Decompression Illness can be viewed online on the ADSF website. along with others co-written by Dr Lippmann such as Am I Fit To Dive? and Diving Medicine For Scuba Divers.
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