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I often get a cough at about the 15 min mark on a dive. Just a tickle in my throat and 1 cough clears it
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If my post doesnt have a typo, then I have probably been hacked! -
I wonder if there might actually be a link between salt water aspiration syndrome (SWAS) and IPO. I am NOT a doctor etc but the symptoms are similar and diving provides a ready trigger for the event. Is is possible that in some people the body's reaction to the "insult" of SWAS is much more rapid and severe than in others; leading to the acute onset of an IPO under water?
The cause of SWAS can be a leak in an open circuit second stage or some seawater bubbling in the bottom of the mouthpiece in a CCR.
As an aside ...a long standing bee in my bonnet is that few divers I see adequately test both their second stages for air tight integrity..... sucking on the second stage with cylinder closed to ensuring you can't suck air into them. Damaged mouth piece or damaged / displaced exhalation valve is the most common reason for being able to suck air in..but the front diaphagm can also fail. My experience is that this step is seldom taught to new divers as part of the kit assembly / test drill or it it is, they rarely do it.Last edited by Steve C; 30-09-2016, 12:31 PM.Comment
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The situation he had wasn't like this - the coughing started and just got worse and worse and the chap was starting to struggle to breathe at all. The shallower he was lifted (he was being lifted by this stage), the worse it got, but loads of O2 injected into the loop at least meant he didn't black out (assuming it would have that effect of course. Not sure but the chap didn't black out at all apparently).The views expressed are my own, worth what you've paid for them, are not on behalf of anyone else and not those of any company I worked for etc.Comment
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The cough with an IPO is one that gets progressively worse. I remember having a strange taste in my mouth as I was coughing. I know now that "taste" was blood from my lungs. I looked at my computer today and in the 5 minutes before I thought the incident started I can see that my breathing rate was increasing. I was unaware of that. I have the whole incident on video and watched it earlier. Again in the five minutes before I dropped the camera to start checking my regs etc I can hear the cough intermittently but increasing in frequency.
Women are more susceptible to IPO's than men. I've no idea why - maybe because women have smaller lungs?? I read an account of a rebreather diver who had an IPO and managed to do about 20 mins of deco before getting to the surface. It's unusual for someone to survive that long but he did it.
I think IPO fatalities are more likely to be recorded as drownings rather than heart attacks. In live patients doctors are more confused because they tend to have a healthy person with normal heart function presenting with a high level of troponin enzyme in their blood. Doctors, other than dive medics, think troponin in the blood equals a heart attack or other trauma to the heart.
Thanks Soggy - fortunately a pfo has been ruled out. The echo was to check for that or some other abnormality of the heart.
I agree Dave that IPOs are rare (though not as rare as we think) and the risk has to be kept in proportion. I do think it would benefit all divers to be taught at an early stage what the symptoms are and that they need to get out of the water if it happens. Despite reading Steve's case papers and the medical reports in his case I had no idea what the symptoms were. Thank goodness some one asked that question when Steve was over and the information stayed somewhere in the back of my head.
Steve I don't think there is a link between SWAS and an IPO despite the similarity of symtoms. I found this
"IPE does not occur because you swallowed or inhaled some water. The edema in the lungs happens from fluid that is usually contained in the pulmonary capillaries but is leaking into the little air sacks/alveoli of your lungs (see below). The exact triggering mechanism is still incompletely understood. However, it is postulated that increased pressure in your vessels that supply the lungs (pulmonary vessels) is exceeded and it is this pressure that drives tissue fluid into the alveoli."Comment
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Maybe you need to get a 2nd opinion. I heard the doc on Gozo is quite goodLast edited by Paulo; 30-09-2016, 11:10 PM.If my post doesnt have a typo, then I have probably been hacked!Comment
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Jen, would you mind if I cut/pasted your description of the incident and sent it to my fellow club members (I'm DO of a BSAC club)
Cheers
SteveComment
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Paul I'm in Malta with Steve for his case next month and will see that esteemed doctor. I must remember to not ask him for advice LOL!
Steve yes go ahead. I posted it on the Northern Irish diving group because I realised that although many of us have now heard of IPOs few of us know how to recognise the symptoms during an incident.
The other thing I would add is that it is typical to recover quite quickly once removed from the sea. Within about 10 minutes I was able to walk off the rocks. Within about an hour I felt pretty ok other than the cough, which had eased considerably. Had I not gone to hospital and had the tests I would not have known I'd had an IPO and would have been back in the water this weekend. I may not have been so lucky if it happened again.Comment
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