DISTRACTED WHILE DIVING QUESTION Are There Risks Diving with a Camera?
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LITE AlertYour compact Alert Diver companion April/May 2018DIVER CORE 4 EXERCISES INSTITUTING A CULTURE OF SAFETY A systematic approach TRAVEL SMARTER Food and water precautions DISTRACTED WHILE DIVING QUESTION Are there risks diving with a camera? CAUTION Recreational divers should always dive with a buddy DAN-SA Do not compromise your safety for the sake of a photograph EAT SLEEP DIVE 77 Messages Perspectives ON THE COVER Carefully consider risks of distraction when using a PERSPECTIVES camera underwater. Welcome to another edition of Alert Diver Lite. In this edition we will be addressing: - Q&As on medical fitness to dive - How distraction can cause problems while diving - Important facts about potable water - Staying in good ‘abdominal’ shape PERSPECTIVES - Why the medical cliché of “take two aspirins and call me in the 78 Message from DAN-SA’s founder morning” may not be good advice for divers 79 SAFETY STOP It is easy to forget that recreational diving is not a “walk in the park”. Scuba Statistics for 2017 diving is actually quite “abnormal”. Medically speaking, efforts to breathe underwater are called drowning – at least after emerging from the womb 80 INCIDENT INSIGHT at birth. Obviously scuba diving is not considered a medical diagnosis but Distracted while diving it is not a natural state either. Not only is it counter-intuitive to breathe underwater but our natural, instinctive, defense-responses can kill us: Holding 82 PROFILE your breath and dashing to the surface is the very worst thing a diver can Gordon Hiles do. It is also the most natural human response. Practical diver training aims MEDICAL deliberately at reconditioning and even actively suppressing “natural” survival 84 CONTENTS Travel Smarter: Food and water precautions responses in favour of ones that can save our lives. So, please keep your training fresh. 86 SAFETY Scuba diving may be relaxing but it does require our full attention. Instituting a Culture of Safety Problems may arise if we do not – as discussed later. It is easy to lose sight of this: We actually need to reinterpret our five physical senses and completely MEDLINE Q&A change our primary means of propulsion (from walking to swimming). We also 90 Diving with a medical condition, travel and antibiotics need to adapt our normal 2D social orientation to a 3D one: When looking for other people, we are accustomed to looking around, and not upwards or 92 CATALOGUE downwards as in water. So, previously unconscious processes suddenly need Latest from the DAN-SA shop our attention. Experienced divers may take all this for granted but entry level, novice or infrequent divers are a bit vulnerable to mental- and sensory FITNESS 94 No sit-ups, no problem overload. Pool refreshers and “check-out dives” are a smart way of making the transition easier before jumping in the lake or the ocean. The first “real dive” is then so much more likely to be relaxing and enjoyable. This is good value for money, if nothing else! Water does not only determine the quality of diving but also the TEAM & CONTACT quality (and even the duration) of our lives. Potable water is a “big deal” and becoming increasingly so. Have a look at how to make sure your insides do not become your outsides. If you want to show your guts, we recommend rather ALERT DIVER LITE PHILOSOPHY exercising your abdominal muscles by toning them, rather than squatting on The views expressed by contributors are not necessarily those advocated by the loo. Later on we explain how to do the former option efficiently. the publisher or DAN-SA. While every effort is made to ensure the accuracy of Willow has its medical merits but you may be barking up the wrong tree information and reports, the publisher as well as DAN-SA does not accept any if you are a diver. If you were a bit lost with my reference to the botanical responsibility, whatsoever, for any errors, omissions, or for any effects resulting origins (for instance, willow bark), then you may want to read the article on therefrom. As to the best of the publisher and DAN-SA’s knowledge, contributors why aspirin may not be the best thing since sliced-bread – at least for diving. have not indulged in plagiarism. Although the utmost is done to avoid such occurrences, the publisher and DAN-SA will not be held responsible for the Please remember that fitness to dive is a contributors’ or writers’ indulgence in plagiarism. No part of this publication may be social responsibility, not only a personal choice: used or reproduced in any form without the written permission of DAN-SA. E&OE. We depend on each other while diving. So, an unstable or disabling medical problem is also a potential threat to the safety of others. Please be TEAM CONTRIBUTORS considerate. Also, feel free to ask us the questions Dr Frans Cronjé Jessica B Adams Morné Christou Peter Buzzacott you may never have had the opportunity or Sabrina Hindley Matthew DelTufo courage to ask your diving instructor. In the Q&A Petar Denoble on “Can-I-dive”, we provide some interesting Joel Dovenbarger examples, and the details on how to reach us for CONTACT US Gordon Hiles medical questions, including a really “cool” app. Please contact us at Dr Jack Meintjies Dr Frans Cronjé With that, we invite you to enjoy the rest of [email protected] or phone 0860 Frances Smith MBChB, MSc 78 Founder of DAN Southern Africa this edition. Until next time – safe diving! 242 242 from inside South Africa. Scott Smith StatisticsPerspectives 2017 MessagesSafety stop STATISTICS 2017 24-HOUR DAN HOTLINE The hotline is available 24/7/365 at 0800 020 111 locally or +27 82 810 6010 from outside of South Africa. If you travel internationally, remember to ensure that your party has at least one phone available for emergencies with roaming activated. Contact the DAN hotline as soon as possible in the event of an emergency. Stats Period Jan – Dec 2017 Male Non-Member DAN Hotline Gender Usage Split Female DAN Hotline Member Usage Member 12 52 18 47 15 18 14 7 21 43 47 50 42 62 36 51 64 22 16 19 29 36 17 20 21 22 41 54 41 45 49 44 44 42 33 66 34 43 69 83 72 81 85 91 62 73 82 106 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Emergencies Non-Emergencies Email Queries DAN Hotline Cases DAN Hotline Case Category Fatalities 118 109 101 97 1 95 92 94 1 87 88 81 2 59 77 87 87 94 64 79 86 103 52 1 69 78 33 43 10 18 14 14 19 7 11 1391216 1 2 4 4 1 1 5 3 1 223 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec DAN Hotline Transport Percentage DAN Hotline Sub Categories 62 792 102 8 3 0 86 40 1 16 0 15 4 1 12 5 Rotary Ambulance Commercial Boat Own Wing flight transport AGE Other DCI/DCS Fatality Barotrauma Trip advisory MedicationNon-diving query related Diving-relatedFitness-to-dive traumaHazardous query Marine Life 79 Incident Insight Distracted While Diving By Peter Buzzacott, MPH, PhD THE DIVER her air supply dwindle. Finally, she reached 6 m with about The diver was a 48-year-old woman who was open-water 20 bar of air left. She opted to make a safety stop and watched certified 20 years ago but had not dived since then. She her gauge intently the whole time. As soon as she finished, had recently taken a second open-water diving course. She she motioned for her buddy to ascend the mooring line. She was 1.7 m tall, weighed 104 kg and had a body mass index ascended in a slow, controlled manner but stated that her (BMI) of 36. She had recently lost 20 kg and was still in the mind was racing and that she felt relief as her depth gauge process of losing weight, though she was not dieting during approached zero. this seven-day liveaboard trip in Australia. THE INCIDENT On the second day of diving, the diver reported “getting The diver reported “getting carried away while carried away while taking pictures.” She stopped looking at taking pictures.” She stopped looking at her her gauges and realised at 30 m that she only had 69 bar gauges and realised at 30 m that she only had of breathing gas left. Her dive buddy was motioning for her 69 bar of breathing gas left. to ascend, so she began to do so purposefully. She reported that she was feeling worried and that she did not want to On the surface, the diver inflated her BCD, looked at her shoot to the surface, so she began a steady ascent. gauge and saw that her tank was completely empty. At 14 m, she looked around and was initially unable to 80 locate her dive buddy, but she soon found him. She watched Incident Insight air does not automatically lead to death, but when coupled with panic and a rapid ascent, which may be more common among inexperienced divers, the consequences can be grave. An Australian study followed a thousand recreational scuba divers and determined that, compared with divers who surfaced with plenty of air remaining, divers who surfaced low on air were more than 20 times more likely to be surprised by how little air they had left.