Arriving in Durham, North Carolina, I was welcomed into the Diver’s Alert Network family – Patty Seery organised my entire visit; coordinating all the departments and made North American Scholar, Christian, and I feel incredibly welcome. Dan and Betty Orr, fantastic long-term supporters of the scholarship, were more generous than I could ever imagine.
Divers Alert Network (DAN) was set up in 1980 with the mission to help divers in need of medical emergency assistance and to encourage dive safety through research, education and services. The DAN 24 hour emergency hotline provides assistance to divers around the world by giving advice on symptoms and suggestions for treatment. In 1987 DAN pioneered the first dive accident insurance program which provides cover for evacuations and treatment for diving injuries. This insurance is important as often diving holidays are in remote areas with limited medical care. By calling the DAN hotline, divers can talk to medical professionals and get the ball rolling for the appropriate care.
During my visit to the DAN national office in Durham, North Carolina, I was able to gain an insight into the incredible work that the organisation does to improve diving safety and provide assistance to injured divers all over the world. The main departments of DAN include education, communication, research and medicine. Through the education office Christian, the North American Rolex scholar, and I were able to complete training in the DAN Instructor Qualifying Course including AEDs, Oxygen First Aid, Advanced Oxygen First aid, First Aid for Hazardous Marine Life and On-Site Neurological Assessment. These courses are definitely very valuable; I hope I never have to put them into practice in an emergency situation but I hope to use my instructor training to pass on these important skills to divers in the future.
During a day with the research department we learnt about the current work that is being carried out by Dr Petar Denoble, Senior Research Director, including the Project Dive Exploration which is an ongoing research project that gains dive profiles from divers and then assesses the risk/symptoms if present and tries to find ways to minimize dive accidents. For an interesting read the DAN Annual Diving Report 2008 is available for members and online PDF’s of research are avaliable at http://www.danasiapacific.org/main/accident.php.
We also spent time with Dr Pollock who is the research director at DAN and a research associate in the Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Environmental Physiology at Duke University Medical Center. He took us through some diving accident statistics, the common symptoms of Decompression Sickness and then showed the use of Ultrasound to check divers for bubbles after surfacing from dives. With this practical I was able to watch my heart beating on the monitor!
We also received a tour of the Hyperbaric Chambers at Duke University Medical Centre which was set up in 1963 and is used for research, treatment and teaching. The 5chamber set up is capable of both increased pressure as well as decreased so is used for diving research and increased altitude such as NASA research.
One of the most interesting parts of the week was learning about the Harvesting Divers from Dr Matias Nochetto. Around the world there are many communities that take risks with diving in order to make a living. Many of them, through lack of training and improvised equipment ascend with severe injuries, namely Decompression Sickness. DAN has been involved with Harvesting Divers communities in Mexico, Honduras/Nicaragua and NE Brazil and provides support by teaching basic Oxygen Administration training, teaching safer diving protocols and through the Recompression Chamber Assistance Program (RCAP). RCAP provides support for hyperbaric chambers with equipment and training to help ensure injured divers have access to the appropriate medical care.
A huge thank you to everyone at DAN; Patty Seery, Fran, Dr Nick and Kim Bird, Dr Matias Nochetto, Dr Neal Pollock, Dr Petar Denoble, Marty McCafferty, Scott Smith, Jenna Whiley, Shabbar Ranapurwala and of course Dan and Betty Orr. I had a fantastic week and gained a valuable insight into fitness for diving, diving accidents and treatments.
