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Rebreather CO2 Hit: Carbon Dioxide poisoning
By Alan Edwards on 24 August 2008 - comments [29]
Ever Rebreather diver fears it, there is no warning and when you do get hit, it’s too late. I can tell you now, you cannot simulate a CO2 hit like the one you get when it is an accident. Ok first I need to describe what one is like, then you will get the picture.Like most dive accidents were the chance of nature is not involved, CO2 over load is really a consequence of incidents before the dive, I decided to sun bath in the middle of the Egyptian summer, it was HOT, I even advise not doing this on the site.
A Story Of The Bends
By Kate Hardy on 8 August 2008 - comments
Not long after I had first started diving I remember commenting how it would be interesting to get a bend, just to find out what it was like. Someone, misunderstanding my point and being rather over-zealous gave me a telling off, suggesting it was an irresponsible thing to say.
But the point is, as divers we all fear the bends but do any of us who haven’t had one really know what they are like? Do we know what to expect and could we recognise a bend if we had one?
Pursuing my curiosity I did a visit to a recompression chamber – just to get an idea of what it was like and what would happen if I were ever unfortunate enough to need treatment. As it turned out, it wasn’t long before I was glad I had made that trip.
Dive Magazine PFO MRI warning!
By Alan Edwards on 12 September 2005 - comments [1]
This months Dive Magazine (Issue 25th September) letter of the month is from someone who had a Patent Foramen Ovale (PFO) device fitted and warns the reader that they are in mortal danger from a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scan following the procedure.
Alan (T-D), who has also a PFO device fitted, read the article and found the letter outlining a possible danger to a very wide audience, most of which may not have the device in question. The letter states that the device used for the writers procedure was made from “surgical quality steel”.
The letter’s author then uses this definition of the device material to corroborate a sequence of events which left unchecked may have killed him. There are many different types of PFO Occluder Devices on the market, each with their own guidelines on suitability for MRI.
Interview with a PFO Cardiologist
By Alan Edwards on 24 July 2005 - comments [1]
Travel-Dive has conducted an Interview with Dr Stephen Brecker, consultant cardiologist to Alan (T-D), who had his PFO corrected by Stephen last year, with the insertion of an Amplatzer device. 
Stephen has performed over 300 PFO related procedures, and has a wealth of experience in this area. It is hoped that this interview goes some way to making issues surrounding the often misunderstood condition more transparent to the diver.
Equalization Problems
By Alan Edwards on 20 July 2005 - comments
After completing my PADI Open water course in the UK I merrily signed up to a trip to the Red Sea to enjoy a few weeks of diving in the beautiful warm waters of Sharm el Sheikh. I had only dived to a depth of aprox 15-20 metres in the UK in some god awful quarry in a dry suit and was looking to get some diving in and around Sharm in a shorty.
When I finally got down to organizing some dives I went out for the check dive and discovered something very unusual. Whilst I was swimming about off the hotel reef without a care in the world my dive guide kept signaling if I was ok, on an annoyingly constant basis. This I have to say was getting on my pecks, but I carried on trying to ignore apparently over eager dive master. When I got to the surface I still hadn’t noticed the unspeakable coagulated blood which had been building up in my mask. After the dive the dive master pointed to it and I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, along the bottom of my mask, horrible snot ridden blood of ungodly consistency.
PFO (Probably feeling Ok)
By Alan Edwards on 7 June 2005 - comments [3]
That’s how most divers feel after a dive, when something doesn’t feel quite right, but they can’t put their finger on what it is. Many years can pass thinking like this, as it was for me and countless other PFO divers. As time passes a sort of desensitization occurs, not having the medical knowledge and there being a woeful lack of education on the subject (which to be fair reflects the poor understanding of its affects).
As a result you don’t suspect something is genuinely wrong and that it’s just some figment of paranoia your mind has created. I only began to develop an issue about my physical reactions to diving when I went to Malaysia and Thailand on a long diving trip with my then girlfriend. She too was a diver, and it was our very distinct reactions to our dives which confirmed my suspicion that the family gene pool was rubbish.