Kirsty Andrews enjoys an illuminating visit to Plymouth’ s DDRC, including a fragrant dive in the recompression chamber
KIRSTYANDREWS
One for the pot?
Kirsty Andrews enjoys an illuminating visit to Plymouth’ s DDRC, including a fragrant dive in the recompression chamber
What is the most fun a diver can have while staying dry? You may have different answers to this question, and I’ d love to hear them! For me, I wish to sing the praises of the Dive Accident Responder Course I recently attended at the DDRC in Plymouth( which stands for Diving Diseases Research Centre, in case you’ re not already a fan).
I’ d never been in a chamber, either for fun or in anger, and was interested to experience it. That wasn’ t the only draw of the course though; it was a brilliantly run day of useful information from proper experts.
There were about 35 attendees when I visited, and we were split into four groups, switching between stations. My group started with a refresher of Basic Life Support, with O2 administration and dealing with a diver casualty. I always feel a little guilty that I don’ t practise these skills enough, and with absolute pros reminding us of the protocols, our session flew by.
We were all able to get hands-on with the Resusci Annes, and the exercise became noticeably competitive. Since my last CPR training( a while ago), everything has become really rather hi-tech: a Bluetooth transmitter gave us real-time feedback as to whether we were pressing too hard or too softly, or in the wrong place, or not keeping the beat. Staying Alive by the Bee Gees is still a compelling time-keeper / earworm for this.
“ Everything has become really rather hi-tech”
Basic life support, with a cuppa
This column certainly isn’ t long enough to share all the useful information I received, and I’ d certainly recommend that you sign up yourselves, either as a club outing or as individuals. You won’ t regret it.
We had an illuminating talk by a member of the local Search & Rescue helicopter team, learned about their operations, where the teams are based, and saw some of the kit used to bring divers up. We even saw video footage of a diver being airlifted from a charter boat towards the DDRC; it was someone who just happened to be a friend of mine – a little too close to home.
While at the DDRC it made sense to hear directly from a diving doctor, and our final session was a run-through of a range of diving medical issues. The various types of decompression illness and their signs and symptoms were relatively familiar, but I hadn’ t before had such a thorough explanation of immersion pulmonary oedema, or the considerations of gas densities. It was sobering stuff, which I hope will make me a better first responder, should I need to be.
I must of course tell you about the main event: the chamber dive. Our tour of the facilities included the claustrophobiainducing smaller chambers but ours, thankfully, was the larger chamber. It fitted the full group, escorted by one of the team. We even had our own entertainment, from balloons to show the effects of pressure and for impromptu volleying, to a tiny TV showing nature programmes.
It was overall quite a surreal and at some points daunting experience. We were taken from ambient pressure to 40m very quickly – I’ ve never cleared my ears so frequently or so conscientiously. The temperature change was quick and extreme: uncomfortably hot at depth, and cooling rapidly with atmospheric steam on the way up.
As we had been asked not to wear deodorant or perfume for the chamber, I’ ll let you imagine the atmosphere … We tried to breathe normally through our masks while breathing oxygen on the way up, and marvelled at our squeaky voices and lack of mental agility at depth. All in all it was fascinating, but very different from the joyous freedom of scuba kit. I’ m glad I did it, however much as I enjoyed my day, I’ m incentivised to try to avoid a‘ proper potting’ in future �
The smaller chamber, a bit claustrophobic
20 The larger chamber, where Kirsty’ s dive took place