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#6400
How did you get sick or injured during a diving trip?
BillParker - 1/21/2015 4:34 PM
Category: Health & Safety
Replies: 11

scubaboard.com/forums/diving-medicine/122765-can-...-grow-your-skin.html

This SB.com thread has some interesting medical stories. (I don’t
think coral can actually grow in side your body. That’s just
nonsense.) But it got me thinking how I’ve been messed up on
diving trips. I’m pretty sure I contracted scabies in Mexico.
That sucked big time. Also I think I brushed up against a
poison wood tree in Mexico and it gave me an large itchy red welt
on my leg that took a couple of months to heal up. I certainly
didn’t expect those problems before I traveled. Before I started
going on diving trips the worst thing that happened to me was an
occasional cold or mild allergy. Let’s hear some stories on how you
got jacked up on a diving trip in a way that surprised you.
#20387
LatitudeAdjustment - 1/21/2015 6:32 PM
Well it took three times but I figured out that I’m allergic to jumbo shrimp in South America. It cost me a lot of diving and once I had to be air evacted from Utila to a hospital in La Cieba.

I can eat them at home no problem.
#12120
Eric_R - 1/22/2015 6:09 AM
I didn’t but a friend took a hit to the head from a mooring buoy. She went into a state of panic and it took a lot of calming down to get her to release her grip from the rope. After I pulled her to the stern and got her back on board she asked who pulled her from the water. Panicking definitely blinds you.
#297
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elliselectric - 1/22/2015 7:35 AM
I once almost got injured by the Carolina rigging of dive boats in North Carolina wrecks. I was last coming back up the anchor line when the weights for the safety stop line came crashing down fast on the anchor line. The reason was someone wasn’t using proper buoyancy and had floated the safety stop line up toward the surface and when they let go of safety line the weights came crashing down toward me, luckily I removed my hand in time from the anchor line.
#3720
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tstormdiver - 1/22/2015 4:25 PM
I took a very mild DCS hit (skin bends) about 3 yrs ago. I was doing some rather aggressive cave diving (1-1/2 hr long dives to depths of 90ft) at Jackson Blue. As the week progressed I slowly became dehydrated. On day 5, I exited the water & within 30 min. or so began to feel a prickly itch between my shoulder blades. I had been wearing t-shirts all week, so knew it was not sunburn. On that 5th day, I was loading cylinders & equipment into my truck (buddy had gone to the bathroom), when I suddenly felt very light headed & completely exhausted. I was so tired I could not even hardly move for more than 10 min. My buddy came around & saw me & asked what was wrong (he’s a physician). I told him & we went back to our rental trailer. I drank a lot of water, rested a few hours & was much better. I wasn’t 100%, but doing better. My buddy kept a close eye on me for a couple of days & I became stronger & better. A close call. I really watch & make sure I take in enough fluids when doing a lot of "power diving".
#6400
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BillParker - 1/22/2015 6:52 PM
Wow that was a close call on that cave dive. That’s what creeps me out about technical diving. People follow procedures and things go wrong and no one can explain exactly what went wrong in order to avoid it in the future. I think I may have gotten slightly bent once in my jaw in Cozumel. Or it might have been I didn’t have enough slack on my reg hose and my jaw muscle was tired because I had to clench hard to keep it in my mouth. I got over it pretty quick with no treatment. I still wonder what really happened that day.
#3720
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tstormdiver - 1/22/2015 7:16 PM
A lot of my problem is I slowly became increasingly dehydrated over the course of the trip; day by day. Plus doing two 1-1/2 hr dives a day, was probably pushing it a bit much. I rested for a couple days & got myself rehydrated, before doing some simple rec dives & was fine. I have also changed the way I dive a bit. I now only do 1 "big boy" deco dive a day & the second dive is typically a no deco "weenie" dive in the afternoon with a minimum of a 2 hr surface interval. I have not had any problems since then. When I began tech diving, my tech instructor told me, "In tech diving, it is not a matter of "if" you will get bent, it is "when", seems to hold true. One just has to know their limits.
#5471
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DiveBuddyChgo - 1/24/2015 6:09 AM
15 minutes into the 2nd dive of the first day. 26 hrs at ER/ 12 hrs in the chamber. Ocean/L.Mich. dive # 752 about 2 years ago. Numb from my toes to my waist. Toe tips still numb years later. Par for the course and should be expected sooner or later. $13,000, 150 dives later and still diving. Most DCS hits are within the limits. I actually bought the DAN ins. for emergency helicopter evac. while sailing in the Caribbean. Never thought I would ever get a hit at home diving L.Mich.. But its to be expected to live an active life style. UTube Mike Bartenfelder
#2242
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MDW - 1/25/2015 12:46 PM
Parked my truck too close to the edge of the parking lot at a shore dive site (dive 1 of a 4 day trip over Labor Day weekend). So when I went to walk around the back of the truck to get my dry clothes after the dive, I stepped off the edge of the curb and twisted my ankle and fell head over heals to the ground. This was good in that by rolling with it I avoided a sprain, but also a bit embarrassing, as I was between the point of removing my wet suit and putting on my pants so there was some overexposure to my dive buddies which I may never hear the end of. The ankle hurt for the rest of the weekend, but it did not stop me from doing all the dives we had planned for those next three days. Pretty funny how I could do the entry and exit up and down a slimy ramp without incident, then injure myself on dry land changing out of my wetsuit. LOL.
#348
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LandSeaAir - 1/29/2015 9:45 AM
I was on a personal boat that headed to a dive site as fast (and choppy hard) as it could make it over the swells because we needed to go about an hour and a half to get to the wreck. The wreck at bottom keel is about 89FT but top of tug was less of course. I got there fine, (a little beaten up by the chop) and first dive was fine. However, when I came out of the water to wait for second dive, I started getting seasick (I assume) and I was in the Navy for three years and NEVER got seasick. I tried eating some chips and it didn’t help much, got tank on and flipped backwards to enter, filled mouthpiece with orange Dorito juice and after I fed the fishes, I was perfectly fine for the rest of the dive and the trip back. Mystery.