Bad Training or Bad Divers?
PADI is under scrutiny in England,
after three PADI-trained divers, in separate
incidents, died after panicking
and dashing to the surface at the
Stoney Cove Diving Centre. In
December a coroner said “all diving
schools should issue manuals
(manuals are often returned to
instructors at the end of a course),
new divers should be encouraged to
take additional lessons, and family
doctors should complete medical
forms so they could check for problems.”
He said that agencies should
have their own quality control to identify
the quality of the training, and
check on selection and training of
instructors.
Agencies should also make unannounced
spot checks at training sites.
A PADI spokesman said PADI would
carefully consider the recommendations,
adding that “PADI standards are
monitored by the most comprehensive
quality assurance procedures in sport
diving. No other training agency has
such an ongoing commitment to
ensuring the safety of the diving
public. The evidence in these three
inquests indicates that in each case
one or more of the basic safety rules
specified by PADI was not followed.”
Let’s Hope It’s Not Kevin Costner.
National Geographic Feature Films
has purchased the life rights of
Jacques Cousteau from the Cousteau
Society and plans to turn the project
into a dramatic feature film, and says it
is talking with several “A-list” directors
to head the project. Proceeds from
the movie rights sale will benefit the
Cousteau Society.
And Let’s Hope It’s Not Dead Sand Fleas. The latest hangover cure is
CORA, nothing more than coral sand,
sold in sachets to be dipped into your
cocktails as you imbibe. Discovered
on Okinawa, where the coral reef acts
as a natural filtration system infusing
the islands water supply with mineral
and trace elements, it has a following
in Europe and will come to the U.S.
soon. That’s not good news for the
latest environmental problem in the
Caribbean -- disappearing beaches as
people mine them for sand for construction
and other purposes, a long
standing tradition.
Donate Those Chambers to DAN,
Guys. Several professional sports
teams use hyperbaric oxygen chambers
to treat sprains and bruises.
Turns out, they might as well use
witchcraft. Diving Doc Alfred Bove,
also a physician for the Philadelphia
76ers, found that athletes treated in
the chambers didn’t heal any faster
than subjects who breathed air at 14.7
psi. A Scottish soccer team in 1993
claimed the therapy reduced recovery
time for injured players by two-thirds.
Since then, anecdotal reports have
made similar claims, and $90,000
chambers have shown up in locker
rooms of the NBA’s Seattle
SuperSonics and the NFL’s
Jacksonville Jaguars.
Attention Diving Docs. Do you know
about the International Society of
Aquatic Medicine? Formed by a group
of physicians in 1975, they meet annually
in the Caribbean to earn category
1 CME credits from the University of
Tennessee, through programs on
hyperbaric medicine, diving safety,
stings and bites, and diagnosis and
treatment of diving injuries. Smaller
groups venture to more distant areas
— Fiji, Galapagos Islands, Cocos
Islands, and the Red Sea — to earn
category 2 CME credits. With physician
salaries getting hammered by
managed care, the tax deductions
don’t hurt. Other medical professionals
are welcome. ISAM, 6240 Turtle
Hall Drive, Wilmington, NC 28409;
Phone: 910 452 1452, Fax 910 799
5209. E mail- DivingDocs@aol.com.