Port Blair, April 4: Smt Vijayta, a 36 years old resident of Delhi was treated at Command Diving Unit (CDU) here for diving sickness on Saturday. She had developed symptoms like Headache, Chest Pain, Nausea and Giddiness after undertaking recreational diving at Havelock on March 31. The symptoms developed within 20 minutes of doing the SCUBA diving
Initially the patient had reported to Deputy Director Health & Port Health Officer. After first aid she was brought to CDU, Port Blair for Marine Medicine consultation on Saturday morning, where the patient was diagnosed to be a case of Carbon Mono Oxide poisoning. The patient was immediately administered Oxygen Recompression Therapy (RCT) for about two hours in the Recompression Chamber (RCC) at CDU. The recompression therapy was supervised and undertaken at CDU and Medical cover was provided by Marine Medical Specialist of INHS Dhanvantari.
The kind of specialised facility required for the treatment of diving related accidents is however, available only with Clearance Diving Unit, Port Blair in these Islands and the same has been put in use at least nine times in last one year for treating such recreational diving patients for Decompression Sickness (DCS), a condition that arises due to sudden depressurisation of the environment around the body, resulting in the dissolved Nitrogen in blood to bubble out in arteries and other tissues.
