Report on Decompression Illness, Diving Fatalities - Divers Alert ...

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• One case was classified by the chamber as DCS II, even thoughpain was the only symptom. We retained the DCS II classificationbecause the pain had a dermatomal (an area of the skin associatedwith a particular spinal nerve root) distribution suggestive of neurologicaldamage.FinalClassification# Perceived Severity Indexof Serious Cardio- Mild PainCases Neurological Pulmonary NeurologicalDCS I 73 3 70AGE 29 24 1 4DCS II 267 112 8 146 1Lung BT 3 3Ambiguous 42 9 1 22 10Total 414 145 13 175 81It is important to understand all the original data were preserved indigital form as submitted and checked. No data were lost in applyingthe diagnostic criteria described above. These criteria constitutea filter through which the data passed to arrive at the final classificationof Table 2.Table 2Final classificationof injuries retainedfor analysis.2.2 Characteristics of Injured DiversThe age of injured divers varied between 13 and 73 years. The distributionof age by sex is shown in Figure 1. Males made up 69 percentof all injured divers and women 31 percent. This was fairlyconsistent with the sex distribution of previous years. There werefive divers who were 16 years old or younger, comprising about 1percent of the dataset.The median age of the injured divers in 2001 was 38, nearly two yearsolder than in years 1997-2000. The median age of injured females wasthe same as the males, which is also different from previous years,when females tended to be younger. Figure 4 indicates that therewere proportionally more women in the 30-49 age group, andproportionally fewer who were younger than 30 or older than 50.% of Injured Divers454035302520151050285 Males128 Females10-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60-69Age (years)Fig 4Age of injureddivers by gender.DAN’s <strong>Report</strong> on Decompression Illness, Diving Fatalities and Project Dive Exploration: 2003 Edition 27
The pre-existing medical problems of injured divers are shown inTable 3. The most frequently reported health problem was upperrespiratory infection (URI) or congestion. This category includesallergy and other conditions for which divers took decongestants.Musculoskeletal problems were reported in 53 cases and were themost commonly reported chronic health problem in injured divers.Thirty-six divers reported previous decompression illness (8.65 percent).Less than 10 percent of the injured divers reported that theysmoked. There were very few individuals (less than 1 percent) whoreported diabetes mellitus or heart disease.Table 3Divers healthproblems presentbefore dive.Health Problem Frequency %URI / Congestion 78 18.62Musculoskeletal 53 12.65Smoking 39 9.31Previous DCI 36 8.65Back Surgery 27 6.44Asthma 27 6.44HBP 26 6.21ENT 21 5.01Seasickness 19 4.53Psychiatric 12 2.86Gastrointestinal 9 2.15CNS 5 1.19Infections 5 1.19Diabetes 4 0.95Heart Disease 4 0.95Figure 5 shows the highest certification of the injured divers. Openwaterand advanced open-water certifications were the most commontype of certification, comprising 72 percent of the injuriesreported. Instructors constituted 10 percent of reported injuries, andstudents comprised 2.1 percent. Technical divers are an increasingportion of the injury database and comprised 5.3 percent of theinjuries for 2001. Women comprised a higher fraction of basic certificationthan men. Injured instructors comprised 12 percent of theinjured males, yet only 4.5 percent of the females. Higher proportionsof instructors and technical divers were male than female.Fig 5Certification ofinjured diversby gender.% of Injured Divers504540353025201510286 Males128 Females50StudentBasicAdvancedSpecialtyInstructorTechnical28DAN’s <strong>Report</strong> on Decompression Illness, Diving Fatalities and Project Dive Exploration: 2003 Edition
Page 1 and 2: Report onDecompres
Page 3 and 4: Dedicated toDr. Peter B. BennettThe
Page 5 and 6: AcknowledgmentsData for the 2002 <s
Page 7 and 8: International DAN OfficesDAN Americ
Page 9 and 10: When divers have questions about th
Page 11 and 12: Flying After Diving (FAD) StudyIn 1
Page 13 and 14: In 2002, DAN trained six interns fr
Page 15 and 16: DAN Training ProgramsOxygen First A
Page 17 and 18: DAN members are also eligible for d
Page 19 and 20: DAN Diver Identification System (DI
Page 21 and 22: Instructors who don’t have access
Page 23 and 24: Of 522 reports submitted in 2001, 5
Page 25 and 26: 2. Dive Injuries2.1 Injury Data Des
Page 27: Arterial Gas Embolism (AGE)• Symp
Page 31 and 32: Figure 7 shows the number of self-r
Page 33 and 34: As shown on Figure 11, most diving
Page 35 and 36: As in previous years, the largest p
Page 37 and 38: Figure 19 shows number of days divi
Page 39 and 40: Figure 23 shows the maximum depth o
Page 41 and 42: 2.4 Signs and Symptoms in Injured D
Page 43 and 44: Figure 29 shows symptoms reported b
Page 45 and 46: Fig 32Distribution ofcases by PSI.E
Page 47 and 48: Figure 35 shows the administration
Page 49 and 50: Figure 37 shows the type of recompr
Page 51 and 52: 2.6 Therapeutic OutcomeFigure 40 sh
Page 53 and 54: Figure 43 shows that AGE was more l
Page 55 and 56: 3. Dive FatalitiesDAN is not the pr
Page 57 and 58: Figure 49 shows the gender and cert
Page 59 and 60: Figure 53 shows the time of day at
Page 61 and 62: Figure 57 shows the distribution of
Page 63 and 64: Figure 61 shows the limited informa
Page 65 and 66: 4. Project DiveExplorationPDE is an
Page 67 and 68: Fig 65Cumulativenumber of PDEdives
Page 69 and 70: Table 10Number ofseries per diver.T
Page 71 and 72: Figure 69 illustrates the certifica
Page 73 and 74: 4.4 DivesMost PDE data (97 percent)
Page 75 and 76: 4.5 Dive SeriesPDE recorded 1,960 d
Page 77 and 78: The maximum depth of the dive serie
Page 79 and 80:
The workload reported by divers in
Page 81 and 82:
The pre-flight surface interval (PF
Page 83 and 84:
Fig 88Percentageof dives bycertific
Page 85 and 86:
Figure 90 shows the month in which
Page 87 and 88:
All PDE divers were asked to report
Page 89 and 90:
The incidence of DCS was different
Page 91 and 92:
Figure 94 shows the proportion of m
Page 93 and 94:
Fig 98Comparison ofdive purpose byp
Page 95 and 96:
Figures 102 and 103 show how the po
Page 97 and 98:
6. Mixed-Gas DivingThis section off
Page 99 and 100:
Figure 110 shows that injured diver
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GlossaryAGE — Arterial Gas Emboli
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Appendix A: Injury Case Rep
Page 105 and 106:
During the second day of diving, th
Page 107 and 108:
Case 6. Delayed Onset of Mild Neuro
Page 109 and 110:
Case 9. One Diver Treated Twice in
Page 111 and 112:
Appendix B: Fatality Case R
Page 113 and 114:
Proximate Cause: Drowning / AirEmbo
Page 115 and 116:
Proximate Cause: Cardiac01-05 Divin
Page 117 and 118:
the water with the instructor and a
Page 119 and 120:
01-22 Public safety diver who was o
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dock. Fifteen minutes into the dive
Page 123 and 124:
end of the dive, but seemed to be d
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01-67 Inexperienced diver, diving s
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01-61 Novice diver lost control of
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entry into a freshwater lake for a
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2002 PublicationsBennett PB, Rostai
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Notes132DAN’s Report</str
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