One more take on the Master Card "Priceless" campaign...

In the Cuba Gooding / Al Pacino diving movie (Men of Honor?) they alluded that you couldn't dive again after getting bent. Was that just Hollywood hyperbole, or some obscure Navy regulation?

I have an OW I dive card, but I've only been diving a handful of times.

Yes, you can dive after getting bent. Especially in JT's case as it was "minor." What Robert DeNiro's character has was an Arterial Gas Embolism, from doing a bounce dive to rescue the helicopter crewman and surfacing too quickly. Well, sort of. Remeber, for deep dives back then, the used air. They had only begun experimenting with helium mixes. Today we know quite a bit more and at the same time, just as little. Depending on the severity of the damage to Master Chief Sunday's alviolar structures in his lungs, he could have lost a substantial amount of vital lung capacity. This could preclude him for passing a pulmonary function test as part of a dive ready physical. If I'm incoherently rambling, let me know - I can do a better job of explaining it if I need to.

-Frank

what does it mean to get bent? that story scared the hell out of me! how common is it to have such a harrowing experience and things like embolisms?

"Getting bent," is the common term used for any kind of hyperbaric (elevated pressure) injuries specific to diving. It's not very common, but those incidents tend to get the most attention because they can really hurt you badly (death inclusive). How does one prevent getting "bent?" Don't dive. How does one improve on their chances of not getting bent? Mastery of buoyancy control. I forget what the actual numbers were for last year, but a significant portion (more than 80% if I remeber correctly) of injuries/deaths due to embolism and decompression sickness were attributed to inexperienced divers (inexperienced in 2 ways, low number of total dives, or low number of dives per year) who lost control of their buoyancy and made a rapid ascent. An Arterial Gas Embolism (embolism) can happen in many places in the human body, more often than not, it takes place in the alveolar structure of the lungs. Inert gas expands on ascent from depth and lodges in the lungs, where it expands more and pops your alveoli like a bunch of bubble wrap. Not good. That's why they drill it into your head in all levels of diving to not hold your breath while ascending. Your lungs are wonderfully robust organs who unfortunately are very frail when it comes to pressure changes. You can actually hurt yourself in as little as 10 feet of water if you ascend and hold your breath. What's commonly referred to as the "bends," decompression sickness happens when those same inert gas bubble lodge themselves in other capillary structures in your body. Joints, and nervous system point are obviously the worst (and sometimes) fatal places. In some cases I've studied, the diver's blood had actually turned to foam from an extreme case of explosive decompression. Your heart was never made to pump foam, just fluid. I'll shut up now. Sorry, I tend to go on forever about this stuff.

Oh, and to answer your second question, it doesn't happen very often. Whew!

-Frank

Edited by scuba-punk 2004-10-03 10:33 AM