Landing at Durham airport North Carolina at noon on a Tuesday, I walked into the airports main foyer and was greeted by a smiling Dan and Betty Orr, my hosts and figureheads of the Divers Alert Network (DAN). A non-profit organisation dedicated to providing advice, insurance, and safety to the diving world.

Dan, Betty, and myself chatted away for an hour while we waited for an addition to the party, Josh Stewartt, the 2010 North American OWU scholar. Josh and I hadn’t seen each other since the annual award ceremony in April, over half a year later and here we were together again. During our stay Josh and I stayed in Dan and Betty’s lovely home, and were treated as VIP guest for our entire visit, Dan, Betty and everyone at the DAN offices really went above and beyond.

Josh, Dan, Betty, and myself outside the DAN head quarters.

DAN hosts a 24 hour diving emergency hotline, you can call them anytime, anywhere. They are a global organisation with offices internationally (such as DAN Asia Pacific whom I am a member) and whatever your diving emergency they will have you covered.

Another core component of DAN is their diver insurance program. When someone gets a bad case of the bends in a remote diving destination the cost of evacuation to the nearest hyperbaric chamber can often be frightening. Which is why proper cover is so important. The beauty of DAN is that they are a non-profit organisation so unlike many insurance companies they are not out to get your money, merely to provide you with the best coverage possible and to keep you safe. Upon visiting the offices I felt the company was like a family. No automated answer phones to shout your way through, it’s much more personal with DAN employees on the other end of the phone lines and as Dan told us, if someone wants to talk to him, they can. Everyone in the organisation can be reached by any member.

The purpose of our visit was to learn about the workings of the DAN Company, hyperbaric medicine, and undergo DAN medical training. It was to be an exciting four days! During our visit Josh and I had a day working with the DAN medical team, listening in as they answered calls from all across the U.S.A. It was a great learning experience. We were also fortunate enough to be privy to a last minute lecture on hyperbaric medicine given by Dr. Nicholas Bird. I found it so interesting and it was made all the better by the clear enthusiasm Dr. Bird had for his work. The study of diving medicine is something that I am becoming increasingly interested in, so this was a very nice surprise. We were also given a fantastic tour of the Duke Hyperbaric Chamber, something that I requested to do prior to the visit as it was of particular interest to me. The Duke facility is simply huge! With it’s largest chamber capable of treating 18 patients at once, and that’s only one of the many chamber that can all be linked and partitioned as the cases and Doctors see fit.

Josh and I inside the smallest hyperbaric chamber at the Duke facility. This tiny bubble was home to 3 volunteers for just under 50 days! They ate, slept, and lived in this tiny sphere for all that time, undertaking the deepest hyperbaric chamber dive ever conducted at the time.

Another crowning moment of the visit was the DAN medical training Josh and I received. We were fortunate to be trained as DAN Instructors! Something I really wanted to do as I can now go on and run CRP, DAN O2 provider, Advanced O2, AED, Neurological Assessment, and Hazardous marine life injuries classes post scholarship. What a repertoire! Patty our instructor made our day and a half of instruction such a fun experience.

Josh and I undertaking our DAN Advanced O2 instructor training with Patty Seery, DAN’s Education Programs Coordinator and instructor of instructors.

Both Josh and myself were blown away by the generosity of Dan and Betty Orr, to give you an idea of just how generous they were, at the start of our visit Dan turned to us and said “whatever currency you have in your wallets, it’s not valid in North Carolina!”. Their dedication to the amazing service that the Divers Alert Network provides, is truly one of a kind.

Josh and I undertaking our DAN instructor training, giving a small slideshow presentation of pictures from my scholarship year so far to the DAN staff, and our trip around the Duke hyperbaric facility.