Police probe launched after Chinese tourist suffers DCS in ‘try dive’

[stevenl]

1 hour ago, animalmagic said:

But it's highly possible the reporters do not know the difference or do any research.  They may just simply quote stuff without understanding it?

Could easily be.

But I was quoting someone else.

[animalmagic]

Just now, stevenl said:

Could easily be.

But I was quoting someone else.

My apologies, I mistakenly thought you were referring to the headline

[Trip Hop]

I can't comment on military training procedures but in the world of recreational diving, providing the student clearly understands the basic science, risks and definite 'no-no's' of diving, appears to be confident with his breathing, equipment and required regulator retrieval exercises etc, in shallow water of say 1.5m or so, there is no reason as to why you shouldn't gradually take them on a dive of up to this depth whilst constantly monitoring them.  However in saying this, it should be only be done at a maximum ratio of 2 students to every qualified professional (certified at divemaster or above), so that if any student does have any issue, there is a competent person in close proximity to try to calm the student and do everything they can to prevent sudden bolts to the surface like this.  Personally on a couple occasions, I have seen myself grab the leg of a student (who has decided to make a bolt to the surface) in order to slow their ascent and avoid an injury such as this one.  Believe it or not, there is more chance of survival from a lung full of sea water than there is of someone who's organs have all gone pop?

 

With regards to comments on DCS or 'the Bends' as it is commonly known, this term is wrongly all too often used to cover a wide variety of diving injuries.  True DCS itself is caused by the build up of gases (mainly nitrogen) within the body, coming out of solution (i.e. from liquid to gas) at a rate faster than the body can expel them.  As one poster has already pointed out, it is highly unlikely that the injured person had suffered any form of true DCS as the build up of nitrogen at that depth would be very minimal unless he had been there for a substantial amount of time.  As he has panicked and bolted, this indicates this not to be the case as generally students will bolt during the early part of the dive and not later on as they become more relaxed and accustomed to the underwater environment.

 

With regards to his injury it very much sounds like a pulmonary barotrauma, which is consistent with a person ascending too quickly whilst holding their breath, causing their lungs to over expand.  Whilst it could technically be argued as a form of embolism, embolisms generally refer to a bubble of air that forcibly enters the bloodstream and then later travels to an organ such as the heart or lungs etc, where it causes a problem?  A pulmonary barotrauma however is caused by the expansion of the air held in the actual lungs and not the blood stream.

[RichardColeman]

maybe the problem was that he could not swim in the first place ?