Unfortunately, 2006 was a busy year for dive accidents.

Throughout the year DAN Asia-Pacific was directly involved with the evacuation and treatment of some 50
DAN Members in this Region. Fortunately, most of these divers eventually recovered after treatment. Various data indicate that approximately 30 percent of divers experience some residual problems post treatment, but often such problems improve or disappear over time.

Tragically, one DAN Member remains with permanent paralysis in both legs. This person, who had performed some deep wreck dives in Truk Lagoon, received recompression within about four hours of the dive and was provided with multiple treatments without significant benefit.  Such a case is fortunately relatively rare, but should serve as a reminder to all of us of the importance of taking decompression illness (DCI) seriously, of taking sensible steps to try to avoid it, and having appropriate measures in place to deal with it if it occurs.

There is good evidence that if oxygen first aid is provided promptly and appropriately before recompression for DCI, less treatment may be required and recovery may be faster. There are also abundant reports of divers who have had DCI symptoms improving greatly and even becoming symptom-free after adequate periods of oxygen breathing. 

So why, you may ask, don’t all dive operators have appropriate oxygen equipment, an adequate oxygen supply and a trained operator available when they take you diving?   

One of DAN’s central missions has always been to ensure that oxygen equipment and a trained operator are available at all dive sites. There have been enormous improvements within the industry in this respect in many places. However, there are still numerous operators, especially in developing countries, that are not adequately equipped or trained. In certain countries, legal concerns encourage operators to meet this industry standard. In others, where litigation is more difficult or impossible, the incentives are lower. 

In 2006 DAN was involved in a case where a Member experienced symptoms of DCI whilst on a liveaboard vessel in Indonesia. His symptoms abated and then disappeared while he was breathing oxygen. The boat needed to travel for 12 hours to reach a port from where he could be evacuated but there was only enough oxygen to last for about 5 hours! Once the oxygen supply had been exhausted the Members’ symptoms returned. Unfortunately, there was clearly inadequate oxygen on board to deal with such an emergency.

As we begin a new year you, as a diver, should focus on making your dive safety a priority.  You have the right to expect that you would be provided adequate oxygen first aid in the event of a dive accident. So when you are planning to use the services of a dive operator, especially in a remote location, make sure you ask them if they are adequately prepared and, if they are not, look for an operator that is. It is your right to dive with an operator who makes your safety a priority. And if enough divers refuse to use the services of ill-prepared operators, it just might be the push they need to step up and become safer dive operators. 

So the choice is yours, will you put your safety first in 2007?