What are the signs of the bends?

Asked by: George Reyes

(Decompression Illness; Caisson Disease; The Bends)

• Symptoms can include fatigue and pain in muscles and joints.
• In the more severe type, symptoms may be similar to those of stroke or can include numbness, tingling, arm or leg weakness, unsteadiness, vertigo (spinning), difficulty breathing, and chest pain.

What does it feel like to have the bends?

The pain associated with the bends usually feels like a dull ache, but can be much more severe, like a stabbing sensation. This painful sensation can also occur in other parts of the body, including the ear, the spinal cord, the lungs, the brain or the skin.

How long does it take for symptoms of bends?

Symptoms of DCS can occur immediately after surfacing or up to 24 hours later. On average a diver with DCS will experience symptoms between 15 minutes and 12 hours following a dive.

Can the bends be cured?

Immediate treatment with 100% oxygen, followed by recompression in a hyperbaric chamber, will in most cases result in no long-term effects. However, permanent long-term injury from DCS is possible.

Can you live if you get the bends?

Prognosis or outlook of people who develop the bends varies with the following factors: Prognosis is good with hyperbaric oxygen treatment. Delay to hyperbaric oxygen treatment: Although reports show that divers can do well after days of symptoms, delay in definitive treatment may cause damage that is irreversible.

Can you fart while diving?

Farting is possible while scuba diving but not advisable because: Diving wetsuits are very expensive and the explosive force of an underwater fart will rip a hole in your wetsuit. An underwater fart will shoot you up to the surface like a missile which can cause decompression sickness.

Is getting the bends painful?

The less severe type (or musculoskeletal form) of decompression sickness, often called the bends, typically causes pain. The pain usually occurs in the joints of the arms or legs, back, or muscles.

What depth does the bends start?

The Bends/DCS in very simple terms

Anyone who dives deeper than 10 metres (30ft.) while breathing air from a scuba tank is affecting the balance of gases inside the tissues of their body. The deeper you dive, the greater the effect. And the longer you stay at depth adds even more to this effect.

Will the bends go away on its own?

In some cases, symptoms may remain mild or even go away by themselves. Often, however, they strengthen in severity until you must seek medical attention, and they may have longer-term repercussions.

What happens if the bends goes untreated?

Untreated joint pain that subsides could cause small areas of bone damage (osteonecrosis). If this happens through repeated instances of DCS, there may be enough damage to cause the bone to become brittle, or for joints to collapse or become arthritic.

Is 47 meters down a true story?

None of the four teens in the film are based on any particular real person, though in the press notes for the film, director Johannes Roberts says he modeled their relationships after another director’s style.

Who discovered the bends?

This was the first recorded description of decompression sickness. 1841 – Jacques Triger documented the first cases of decompression sickness in humans when two miners involved in pressurised caisson work developed symptoms.

What is the death rate for scuba diving?

The fatality rate was 1.8 per million recreational dives, and 47 deaths for every 1000 emergency department presentations for scuba injuries. The most frequent known root cause for diving fatalities is running out of, or low on, breathing gas, but the reasons for this are not specified, probably due to lack of data.

What happens if you vomit while scuba diving?

The vomit will be forced out the regulator in the same way your exhaled breath is. Nothing will get into your air supply because air does not flow back into your cylinder.

What happens if you throw up underwater?

Vomiting underwater is particularly dangerous for two reasons: 1. When a person is retching or vomiting, the glottis is preventing air from being released from the lungs, meaning there are the same risks to the diver as holding breath if he starts to ascend: pulmonary barotrauma or arterial gas embolism. 2.

Can you scuba dive if overweight?

Being overweight or obese can have adverse effects in divers. This includes having a higher risk of developing diving related issues such as decompression sickness (DCS). As well as other non-diving related issues that can impact on a person’s fitness to dive and diver safety.

Are there fat divers?

Obese divers are usually less fit and therefore tend to use more gas during a dive. This means they need larger tanks (or make shorter dives). As a result, dive gear for an obese diver often weighs much more than dive gear for a fit diver.

Can you snorkel if you’re fat?

If you are an overweight individual, there is no weight limit for snorkeling specifically but more a limitation in the transportation and support of people in the water at the snorkeling spot itself.

Can you scuba dive with asthma?

Diving may be hazardous to the lung function of patients with asthma. Despite the risks of SCUBA diving, many asthmatic individuals can dive without serious diving events. Diving evaluations for asthmatic patients have focused on a thorough patient history, spirometry, allergy testing, and bronchial challenges.

What is a Bronchospastic cough?

Bronchospasms happen when the muscles that line your bronchi (airways in your lungs) tighten. This results in wheezing, coughing, and other symptoms.

Can you scuba dive if you smoke?

Yes, you can scuba dive if you smoke or vape. In fact, I know of many divers that do smoke at least semi-regularly. However, as you would imagine, there are additional risks. Furthermore, if you smoke or vape and want to dive, you should consult a doctor first.

Can you jump out of a plane if you have asthma?

As a general rule, if you have asthma you can parachute jump, bungee jump or skydive if: your asthma is well controlled (you have no symptoms and your peak flow score is within your normal range) cold air doesn’t trigger your asthma.

Is cycling good for asthma?

Lead author Simon Bacon said that just 30 minutes a day of walking, riding a bike, doing yoga or anything active, really can result in significant reduction of asthma symptoms.

Do asthmatics have a higher heart rate?

Asthma attacks

wheezing, coughing and chest tightness becoming severe and constant. being too breathless to eat, speak or sleep. breathing faster. a fast heartbeat.

Can I ski with asthma?

Silvers adds: “Adults and children with asthma should not fear skiing – or any cold-weather sport, for that matter – as long as their symptoms are well-managed.” He advises skiers with asthma to: Use a bronchodilator albuterol inhaler 15 minutes before skiing. Warm up for 15-20 minutes before skiing.

Does asthma affect lung capacity?

Paradoxically the most easily measu- red volume, the vital capacity (VC), is the only volume that decreases as asthma becomes more severe; residual volume (RV) and functional residual capacity (FRC) invariably increase. and, more surprisingly, total lung ca- pacity (TLC) itself may increase in the asthmatic attack.