While on a trip to Tahiti, a 71-year-old experienced diver and competitive rower coughed up foamy blood after making three recreational dives on nitrox. He called DAN for advice and later saw a cardiologist, who diagnosed him with exercise-induced mitral valve prolapse. This diver recommends that divers continue to educate themselves, maintain their DAN membership and insurance coverage, go slowly if they haven’t dived in a while, be prepared and practice for emergencies.
WHILE DESCENDING ON OUR SECOND DIVE, I was at around 60 feet when I unexpectedly started ascending rapidly to the surface.
AFTER I SPENT ALMOST 20 HOURS in a hyperbaric chamber over five days, life there had grown tedious. The last 15 minutes, however, were not only exciting but highly instructive. […]
I was diving with my wife, Kristy Hiltz, in remote Kimbe Bay, Papua New Guinea. We had taken all the necessary precautions and dived according to our computers. On what turned out to be our last dive, we sat on a rock ledge at 70 feet for 15 to 20 minutes and then made a slow ascent, completing a full safety stop. As I climbed onto the boat I knew something was wrong, but I thought I needed to drink water and wait for it to pass.
It was 2004, the dawn of digital photography, and I was conflicted about whether to shoot film or digital. I had brought housings for both cameras with me to Thailand. Carrying two housings on a dive was ponderous, but I could manage it if I didn’t take two sets of strobes. My solution was to rig both housings with wet connectors called EO pigtails, which went into the regular sync socket, allowing me to connect and disconnect my strobes underwater.
I am grateful for the safety information DAN publishes, their recommendations for dive medicine physicians, and the peace of mind their insurance coverage provides. My wife, Julie, and I have had DAN insurance for many years and are fortunate to have called DAN in an emergency only one time, 13 years ago when a lionfish stung Julie. Our diving had been without any incidents aside from that, but our last trip to Little Cayman was different.
About 12 years ago, a pair of commercial dive operators began offering adventurous divers a chance to go blackwater diving off the coast of Florida. Since then, blackwater dives have become an established fixture in the Palm Beach dive community, and I have been fortunate to log more than 1,000 such dives without incident.
A DAN member and dive instructor’s routine day was faced with setback after setback. She ended up needing a hyperbaric treatment. Read more about how DAN helped this member.
I always get DAN Trip Insurance for overseas trips, which gives me peace of mind should the unexpected happen. There is a modest upfront payment based on the total trip costs and your age, so I considered skipping it for a Raja Ampat trip since I’ve had many trips without having to file a claim. I’m glad I chose otherwise.
After acquiring a severe infection on a remote Pacific island, one diver had to be medically evacuated to Queensland, Australia.
