SAFETY continued
dressing them before an incident takes place is challenging to say the least. The good news and main point I want to make is that had any of the divers involved monitored their own tank for CO, the incidents could have easily been prevented. Thoughts Regarding Two Big Mistakes: During the first week of my trip a nasty flu had gone around the boat. Luckily, I didn’t catch it and neither did my dive buddy, but most others did. Rather than suspect the gas, the crew decided my buddy and I had the flu, that our incidents were not gas-related as I suggested. The crew put us in bed. I slept for 18 hours. I remember people checking on me, but in all seriousness, when I awoke the next day, there was no need to make my bed. I literally had not moved. I was physically ex- hausted, as exhausted as I have ever been in my life. That is what CO poisoning does. My body was oxygen starved. The mistake of assuming we had the flu led directly to the second mistake. We were never administered oxygen. That was a HUGE MISTAKE . We should have been given 100% O2. That is ALWAYS the recommended course of action. Put divers on 100% O2 anytime there might be a respirato-
ry-related or pressure-related issue. “Might be.” That’s the key. Properly administered O2 might help and can never hurt. I insisted that the tanks my buddy and I used be analyzed by a professional lab. The boat used its back-up compressor for the rest of the trip. The lab report indicated that my tank was extremely high in CO, CO2, and hydrocarbons. I wrote an article for Dive Training magazine about my ex- perience. A doctor in Canada read the piece. He called and told me he knew of nine similar incidents. In one, seven divers died. Roughly 10 years later and ironically at a party at DEMA, my world suddenly went “upside down.” My heart started to race. I broke out in a sweat. I couldn’t tell if I was walking in a straight line. My legs felt extremely heavy. I needed to sit down, and I needed help getting back to my room. With a repeat episode the next day, I flew home to see my doctor. I called DAN because some of my symptoms were similar to those I experienced in the days and weeks after my CO inci- dent. The next six weeks were hellish. I saw an audiologist, cardi-
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