View Full Version : Diving Incident
Scotty Boy
17-06-08, 17:48
read in the paper today about a lady diver being taken to Millport with a severe spinal bend after a dive on sunday in the Firth of Clyde. diver was then moved to Aberdeen in a serious condition.
hope it was no-one from here!
source : Daily Record online.
Helicoper forced to fly low in mercy dash for diver with bends
Jun 17 2008 By Bob Dow
A MERCY helicopter crew had to make a low-level dash 188 miles across Scotland - to try to save the life of a stricken diver.
The Royal Navy chopper had to stay at under 300 feet so that the casualty - a woman suffering from severe bends - was not affected by the change in air pressure.
She was left paralysed when strong currents threw her up to the surface too quickly.
She was being treated by doctors last night at the National Hyperbaric Centre in Aberdeen and is believed to be seriously ill.
The woman, who has not yet been named, had been diving in the Firth of Clyde at a depth of around 130 feet on Sunday.
She is believed to have been caught by massive underwater currents. They rapidly dragged her to the surface where she was hit by spinal bends.
They occur when the body surfaces too quickly and the sudden reduction in pressure causes bubbles in the blood, damaging tissue and nerve endings.
The woman was taken to a small specialist treatment unit at Millport, on Cumbrae island, where medics worked on her for around five hours.
But as her condition worsened, it was decided to rush her north to the larger NHC, in the grounds of the Aberdeen Royal Infirmary hospital complex.
A Royal Navy Sea King helicopter from the rescue centre at HMS Gannet at Prestwick, in Ayrshire, was scrambled to airlift the woman to Aberdeen.
The crew were told by doctors not to fly above 300 feet and any changes in height had to be done "slowly" so any pressure change would not affect the patient.
They flew up the coast from Millport and then inland along the 35-mile route of the Forth and Clyde Canal and then up the east coast to Aberdeen.
The helicopter landed in the Granite City at 12.20am yesterday and the woman was immediately taken to the NHC.
No condition report was available for the woman as she continued treatment last night. A spokesman for HMS Gannet said: "Our job was about keeping to the height the doctors requested to get this lady to the best possible place as quickly as we could."
Hyperbaric oxygen treatment involves repressurising the victim to a "depth" where the bubbles in the blood are made smaller and redissolve into the body tissues.
The patient is slowly brought back to surface pressure. This allows gases to diffuse gradually out of the lungs and body.
Spinal bends is the most severe form of the illness and victims can be left permanently paralaysed. Treatment can take weeks.
sounds harrowing... I'm sure that we are all wishing all the best to casualty & family
Yogi Diver
18-06-08, 08:20
A MERCY helicopter crew had to make a low-level dash 188 miles across Scotland - to try to save the life of a stricken diver.
Spinal bends is the most severe form of the illness and victims can be left permanently paralaysed. Treatment can take weeks.
Whilst this is true, the definining word is "CAN". I hate this type of reporting which gives the impression that our sport is really dangerous. :mad:
Spinal bends CAN be severe but can also be relatively minor. Our club has had 2 divers, myself included, treated for Spinal bends in the past 10 month. We have both recovered, (almost,) completely from the bends and both expect to be diving once more without limits by 2009. (I am limited to 20M on Nitrox till my PFO is sealed.)
This type of report gives the impression that if you have a problem, you WILL die or at best be paralysed and will put people off for sure, not to mention the additional anxiety it creates in the victim's family and friends.:(
There again, maybe I'm just a wee bit sensitive on the subject.:o
Hope the woman recovers as well as we did.
Lizardland
18-06-08, 09:16
On the other hand I have a friend who had a similar CNS bend in the Phillipines who is a complete and utter mess now. Not only can he not dive but he can't work either, that's five years down the line. His treatment lasted months. As you say it can go either way but I think the report is reasonably fair, considering it's from the Record.
Anyway, hope she's alright.
Cheers,
Stuart
Dive Tramp
18-06-08, 09:51
Unfortunate news indeed, hope she makes a good recovery soon. It must be a very scary time for her right now. Best wishes, she is in the best centre for treatment (that's not to demean any other Hyberbaric Centre!).
Every report of an incident prompts me to re-evaluate my diving practices, how about you chaps and chapesses?
Hope things work out, but the reporting....what year are we in and the reporter is still using feet as a measurement???
Hope things work out, but the reporting....what year are we in and the reporter is still using feet as a measurement???
It's the Daily Record - what do you expect?
Lizardland
18-06-08, 13:44
It's the Daily Record - what do you expect?
Fathoms :D
Did you ever read their "I was attacked by a conger eel" story? Hilarious, though I'm not entirely sure it was meant to be...
There again, maybe I'm just a wee bit sensitive on the subject.:o
Maybe, but the reporting is what you'd expect - like the shark stories that always need to be like "a scene from the movie Jaws" whether it's a 2ft long dogfish attack or a plankton feeding shark!
First step in reading th news is interpretting which bit of the story is actually true.
However serious the incident is being choppered from one chamber to anoher must be worrying fo the diver and family and I hope it is resolved well.
Hope things work out, but the reporting....what year are we in and the reporter is still using feet as a measurement???
Like diving in the US where you get guages that measure depth in feet and pressure in psi - on the pressure guage just look for the red bit (:o o'er, more critiscim my way, I fear) and ignore the depth guage and read your computer - feet indeed!
Every report of an incident prompts me to re-evaluate my diving practices, how about you chaps and chapesses?
Yes, I intend avoiding the massive underwater currents that could drag me rapidly to the surface; not sure I've ever seen one in the Clyde but I'll keep my eyes peeled in future.
Seriously though, this is the kind of sensationalist reporting that has MSPs reaching for the Scotland Act to see if they can ban whatever activity has caused the stramash.
I suspect most of the story is based on the Coastguard report and then 'sexed up' by the Daily Retard for dramatic purposes (possibly assisted by RN media relations who'll do anything to get a 'The Team Works' story in the paper) but it serves to remind us that, if ever dealing with the media after an incident, the best approach is 'no comment'. Remember that reporters are reptilian scum whose sole purpose in life is to prevent politicians from being, officially, the lowest form of human existence.
I recall the diving death of an acquaintance that was reported by the lovely people at Radio Clyde, who didn't give out the victims name but gave his age and trade and which area of Glasgow he worked in. Details that fitted exactly another buddy of mine whose elderly mother then had the joy of a stream of people phoning to find out if her son was dead. When my friend called the Radio Clyde news desk to politely ask them to be less specific about the details until the name was officially released he was told to, and I quote, "F*ck off".
Reading between the lines, the casualty got potted at Cumbrae on Table 6 which didn't fully resolve the symptoms and she's been sent to Aberdeen for the multiple recompressions needed rather than effectively closing the Cumbrae pot for everyone else during her treatment. I wish her a speedy and full recovery.
Lizardland
18-06-08, 22:25
it serves to remind us that, if ever dealing with the media after an incident, the best approach is 'no comment'. Remember that reporters are reptilian scum whose sole purpose in life is to prevent politicians from being, officially, the lowest form of human existence.
After the death of a member of my caving club in a diving accident there were reporters signing up to the forum and fishing for info. Scumbags. I also once saw something I had written on the old Scuba-UK list used word for word in a diving mag, lifted straight from the message without permission. The walls have eyes that sink loose ships or something like that :D Something to bear in mind whenever accidents are discussed.
Cheers,
Stuart
dive granny
18-06-08, 22:32
They stop at nothing to get a 'good story'. Joining a forum to get info is awful.:(
Remember that reporters are reptilian scum whose sole purpose in life is to prevent politicians from being, officially, the lowest form of human existence.
Don't talk them up.
diverrepair
26-06-08, 14:40
They did get one or two "facts" a bit misplaced. For a start the casualty wasn't a "she". The navy didn't fly him below 300ft, try 300m (max of 247m to be really precis, but they were told to stay below 300m if possible). The route wasn't along the Forth and Clyde, it was up to Stirling and along the the Dee, turning left at the coast (flight time 1hr 16mins). There simply wasn't an up current, nor was he treated for 5 hours at Millport - try 9.
Oh yeh, he wasn't worsening, but had vastly improved. However this type of spinal bend invariably gets worse over the next 6/8 hours and only responds, to a greater or lesser degree, to heliox saturation. Aberdeen chamber has intensive care nurses on it's staff, Millports crew have day jobs to go to. The decision was made to transfer during the period when the patient was stable - for obvious reasons.
Patient now discharged, reasonably well.
Good stuff diverrepair, its good to know that there are facts out there if the lazy @rsed journalists could be bothered finding them.
Yogi Diver
26-06-08, 15:23
Good stuff diverrepair, its good to know that there are facts out there if the lazy @rsed journalists could be bothered finding them.
I'll second that. Nice to get the facts without the sensationalism the gutter press thrive on.
And really good to know there are people like Diverrepair out there if we need them.:)
Yogi Diver
26-06-08, 15:26
There simply wasn't an up current.
Yeah but poor buoyancy control just doesn't get Joe public going does it?:rolleyes:
fairs fair...
if it was you lying in the pot with the 'daily rag' chapping the door asking 'diverepair' questions, would you be happy if he answered any?
nor would i and im sure he is professional enough not to.
the press have to get their story out and we all know they fill in the bits they dont have any info on. if they drop the story, another tabloid will pick it up and fill in the blanks anyway.
the only way to stop bad journalism is to stop buying the newspapers.
its a privelige that we get info from diverrepair & i hope it continues.
thanks for the real story.
dive granny
26-06-08, 22:02
I agree. thank you Diver repair. Glad the diver is fine now:)