h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I was led to believe the most common cause of DCI was due to rapid ascents. What is defined as rapid does vary Some people think anything more than 10m/s should be avoided.

As for staying no deeper than 10m, you can get bent at shallow depths. I did. A runaway ascent from 8m and ended up in a chamber.

Hi Phil,

Rapids ascent is only part of the problem. You can do a perfectly normal controlled ascent for 30 metres and still get decompression sickness - it depends how long you have been down there for.

It is virtually impossible to get decompression sickness from 8 metres, regardless of how fast you come up unless you are one of those unfortunate people that for some reason are particularly prone to decompression sickness and even so you would have to stay down for an inordinately long period. A couple of hours at least - dive tables don’t normaly start at depths less than ten metres. The tissues just do not absorb sufficient nitrogen at that pressure.

What you probably had is a pulmonary barotrauma, possibly an air embolism. This is a common result of doing a to rapid ascent. It is caused by the air in the lungs expanding faster then the diver exhales. It ruptures the alveoli in the lungs forcing minute air bubble into the blood. Re-compression is a recommended treatment for this condition, but it is not the same as decompression sickness or the bends. It probably comes under the collective name of a decompression illness which cover all conditions that can arise from decompression.

Regards

Stuart

You can do everything by the book and get bent, you can break all the rules and not get bent. Some you win

If it was a pulmonary barotrama in the way you describe,, wouldit cause pain in the chest/lung area?

Well considering that pulmonary means an ilness connected with the lungs and barotrauma means an injury connected with air pressure, yes it would cause pain in the chest.

BTW, break all the rules and you will get bent. Most cases of decompression sickness are caused when somebody breaks the rules, usualy because they have failed to understand them or are just ignorant of them.

Regards

Stuart

In that case then as I did not have any sort of chest pain whatsoever... It was in my arm.

I still dont think it was decompression sickness you had, not from eight meteres, unless you are an extreme example of the type of person prone to decompression sickness in which case you probably shouldn't have been diving anyway. (see original article)

Regards

Stuart