Alert Diver Category: DAN Was There for Me

No one likes getting sick on vacation, but one individual had a hard experience trying to file a claim with their primary insurance provider. One call to DAN, and it was smoothed over.

A DAN member was in a horrible car accident in the Namibia savanna. He was left badly injured and had to wait hours for emergency services. Read more about how DAN was there for this member.

A routine dive unfortunately did not go according to plan and resulted in a diver getting bent. Read his story and how DAN helped him every step of the way.

I have been a diver for about 35 years and a dive instructor for about 30 years. Some instructor friends and I run the Buzos del CAE and Paraná Divers dive schools.

Severe neck and shoulder pain plagued one diver after a day of scuba diving in the South Pacific. The pain worsened and other symptoms developed, but local treatments were not an option. Thanks to DAN, treatments were coordinated.

While in Mexico’s Baja peninsula, a freediver experienced a bad cut on his had from his speargun. It was caused by lack of attention and hurt badly. Thankfully, DAN was there to help.

Our checkout dive was easy, with a maximum depth of 75 feet for 50 minutes. The current was slight, and the visibility was spectacular — an ideal first dive. It closed with a nice, slow ascent and a three-minute safety stop. When we returned to the boat, I felt a sudden tingling in my right foot followed by a dull ache in my knee. I assumed the worst, thinking I had decompression sickness (DCS). When I reviewed the dive in my mind, however, that seemed impossible.

On a sun-drenched afternoon in the Bahamas, my friends and I sailed out for what we thought would be a routine spearfishing trip. We anchored off the remote southern tip of Abaco, between Sandy Point and Hole in the Wall, and found ourselves alone in the blue-green expanse. As we freedived beneath its surface, the clear water was alive with groupers, cubera snappers, and reef sharks.

Soon after surfacing from her first dive of the day, Deborah Newman felt a spasm in her upper back followed by a squeezing sensation in her chest, hypersensitive skin, weakness and nausea.

While trying to eat a fish for lunch, a shark accidentally nipped a diver’s hand instead. The injury was bloody but thankfully, DAN provided needed assistance and guidance.