Catherine Buckland - Diving injuries and insults - The water phase

Catherine talks us through some of the physiology to consider if dealing with a diving or post diving incident and chats us through some insults and injuries which may occur during or after a dive trip and how to assess and treat these as well as possible pathways for the patient. 

Key points:  

  

• A beeping dive computer is bad = means the diver has done 'something wrong' on their dive.  
• Try and get a 'dive history' uncontrolled ascents/descents will likely result in barotrauma 
• Don't assume that a shallow dive won't result in an issue - arterial gas embolisms have occurred from as little as 1.2m 

Links and Resources 

 

The Scottish Hyperbaric emergency helpline   0345 408 6008 

 The British Hyperbaric emergency helpline   07831 151 523 

 Both are 24hrs, rescue of course can be initiated through 999/ VHF CH 16.  

 

The UK Hyperbaric association 

https://www.ukhyperbaric.com/ 

 

The British Diving Safety Group, who aim to collaborate with all the agencies on safety matters in diving, have produced this helpful information on Preparation for a return to dive UK sites and seas.  

https://bdsg.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/BDSG-Preparation-for-a-return-to-diving-Winter-2021.pdf