In water recompression.

[Finless]

So, in the instance quoted (which I re quoted) where the diver who hit the surface from 70 mtrs because he could not stop his ascent even after he had disconnected his inflator hose to his wing, would have completely recompressed bubbles in his body when the moment he hit 70 mtrs again?

[Digger]

Something like it, yes. I saw a couple of really old ones, but they are a lot lighter, you could winch that onto a chopper easy. Then when you get to the pot you've already been in a pot for 2 hours!

Only problem is you need gas to breathe, but then if you had a small O2 rebreather in there you'd just need to pressurise the bugger. Easy.

Digs.

[Richard Mason]

Originally Posted by Digger

Something like it, yes. I saw a couple of really old ones, but they are a lot lighter, you could winch that onto a chopper easy. Then when you get to the pot you've already been in a pot for 2 hours!

Only problem is you need gas to breathe, but then if you had a small O2 rebreather in there you'd just need to pressurise the bugger. Easy.

Digs.

I was actually talking to this bloke a while back, he was wanting to come down here and set up in business manufacturing but it all got a bit tricky. You fill it using a normal dive cylinder. He did have the other business sorted too, I think there's some sort of fitting to supply an O2 facemask from outside. The pressure is set to whatever depth you want, any extra gas in there just vents over board via an overpressure valve.

I don't know what happened to him, we lost contact. He came on Divernet forum and was very intense about it which put a lot of people off side and he got in a few bustups with people who couldn't see the idea for the personality.

Typical inventor, living and breathing it day & night and didn't take kindly to people who he thought were disparaging but I PMed him for further discussion. Unfortunately, I think he saw me as a potential financial backer - which was out of the question, so I backed right off.

[Finless]

I put forward a suggestion for 'on the boat re-compression' some time ago but it, or I, was poo-pooed! Not pleasant, I can tell you.

Just get all the other divers on the boat to sit on top of the poorly diver and ....... instant compression! In fact, the only downside I could see was if the poorly diver was a girl and a big fight broke out over who was going to compress which bits ..........

Oh, well, I'm used to my bright ideas being ignored!

[ardhill]

Finless, it was me who mentioned this on Digger's thread.

Sadly for the chap in question, IWR was not an option. He hit the surface near the dive boat and was allegedly heard to have said "Oh F*** I am dead", seconds lated he slumped over. By the time they got him into the boat he was at least unconcious if not actually dead. So, when he hit the surface, major was obvioulsy already done and he knew it.

Going back to the story of Chris Rouse, he also knew he wasn't going to make it more than a minute as he told his would be rescuer on the boat that he couldn't make it and to tell Sue (his wife) "I'm Sorry".

It seems that sometimes, there is no time even for IWR. Would IWR have helped Chrissy Rouse? I think maybe there was too much damage done to be a safe option by the story in the books, he probably would have drowned before recompression had any real effect. Maybe in this case though, one of these mobile recompression units would be an option? I guess it would be down to having someone onboard who knows what to do with it. Can you do more harm than good with one of these if you don't know what you are doing - I dunno, but wouldn't like to be either the guinnea pig, or the patient to find out.
.

[zepp]

Originally Posted by Digger

....but then if you had a small O2 rebreather in there you'd just need to pressurise the bugger. Easy.

Digs.

You would need an external o2 supply that exhausts to the outside anyway. The problem with using any kind of rebreather, especially an o2 one is you would soon end up with a hypoxic mix due to you off-gassing all that inert gas into the loop!!!.. this is one of the reasons that makes simple o2 rebreathers so dangerous.

[Scuby]

Originally Posted by Finless

So, in the instance quoted (which I re quoted) where the diver who hit the surface from 70 mtrs because he could not stop his ascent even after he had disconnected his inflator hose to his wing, would have completely recompressed bubbles in his body when the moment he hit 70 mtrs again?

Depends. For some DCI the effects are instant, as in this case, so recompressing isn't an option - its too late! Things like burst lung, or excessively large bubbles (ie if you'd been particularly deep) aren't going to be immediately helped by recompression.

Milder forms of DCI, particularly those which show up the symptoms after a few hours, are more likely to be successful I imagine. If the damage hasn't been caused yet, then recompressing the bubbles might work.

So basically, if you feel like you've got DCI, its probably already too late to consider recompression without significant medical support on-hand. If you don't feel like you're bent, then it may be more beneficial - but you won't necessarily know you need to do it! Which I suppose leaves the main use for in-water recompression as for those people who know they've missed stops, but don't feel any symptoms?

The big problem I have with in-water recompression is that if someone knows they need it, then something has already gone wrong on the dive. Possibly their kit has failed in some way, and I wouldn't want to go back in the water on dodgy kit! Alternatively, their buoyancy / general skills are crap, and can't control their depth - and again, hardly the ideal candidate to be recompressing in-water! The fact that something has gone wrong in the first place to require recompression therefore means that they are probably the least capable (either personally, or with their current kit) people of managing it successfully.

All this is very much my own ideas / opinions!

David

[glanrichbex]

I've also seen a diver polaris to the surface from 50M, immediately we called the chopper and we waited .......and waited whilst he was on O2 in the boat and nothing happened.

I've heared of a diver who came up from 35M and missed 4 mins of Deco ...... 2:30 at the house :o(

You just can't tell

[stevechesh]

Originally Posted by glanrichbex

I've also seen a diver polaris to the surface from 50M, immediately we called the chopper and we waited .......and waited whilst he was on O2 in the boat and nothing happened.

I've heared of a diver who came up from 35M and missed 4 mins of Deco ...... 2:30 at the house :o(

You just can't tell

sadly, this is a not too uncommon occurance. I was on a boat last year, when we heard the call go out (on the radio) from a different boat, that a guy had gone to 68 metres (can't remember the bottom time), missed all stops and had chest pains!

The radio traffic went on for 20 bloody minutes, including a 'chat' with the RN doc. Only after that, was a helicopter sent out. Not surprisingly, the guy sadly passed away whilst in the chamber.

A 20 minute chat FFS. It's a no-brainer to get to the guy to the pot ASAP, given the depth that was reached. . . . . . . I sincerely hope th CG people get there arses kicked for that. . . . .

[glanrichbex]

Amazingly the guy who came up from 50 was alright apart from a small embolism which caused 8 weeks of paralasis. He's O.k now and back diving. They actually found he had a PFO which if he didn't have may have lessened his symptoms further.
I don't concider myself a lucky man so I tend not to bend the rules ;o)