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Last spring, there were a number of messages posted about the Miskito Coast
Indians. They described the plight of divers involved with the lobster
industry of Roatan and the Honduras. What was described was a situation
where 4th world SCUBA divers are burning 10 or 12 tanks per day, weeks at a
time, at depths exceeding 100' in pursuit of the dwindling supply of
lobster. That they survive this type of diving baffles hyperbaric experts.
100% do suffer symptoms of DCS during their short employment and as many as
1/3 end up permanently crippled or dead. That is the plight Sub Ocean
Safety has been trying to do something about.
Recently, there have been more posts about these 4th world divers as well as
similiar conditions in the South Pacific and Asia. Some people voiced a
desire to do something, others criticized the efforts of individuals on site
for failing to do something more, and, as usual, others just criticized.
This is an opportunity to do something that will make a difference.
Sub Ocean Safety has placed two hyperbaric chambers in central American
locations that are accessible to Miskito Coast natives suffering from DCS.
Last spring, SOS was working to get the generators and air compressors
needed to activate those chambers. Today, they have the hyperbaric
equipment they need and it's time to get it where its needed.
Unfortunately, they're out of money and need some help. Specifically, they
need $1900 to pay the travel expenses to put 5 people in Central America to
complete the installation. That's problem #1.
Problem #2 is they're in need of J-valves. The native divers are provided
with very basic SCUBA gear. Submersible pressure gauges aren't included.
Commonly, these divers know when to ascend by when they run out of air.
They do an Emergency Swimming Ascent, switch to a full tank, and head back
down. No surface interval. J-valves would provide a low air warning so
that they can make a slower ascent using a unique protocol. So SOS is
asking for J-valve donations.
Obviously, we're not talking a high-tech, extravagant organization seeking
bucks to recarpet their lobby. This group is doing what they can with
little and nothing. If you doubt their credibility, consider who's on the
board of directors of Sub Ocean Safety; you'll find a list of the directors
at the end of this message.
For those of us under the U.S. tax system, I'm told that SOS is a 503c
organization and would qualify for tax-deductible donations.
Should you care to help, send your donations (money or J-valves) to:
Sub Ocean Safety
PO Box 834
Lacombe, LA 70445
(504) 882-7286
subocean@co*.ne*
FWIW, I'll kick in the first $100. Now it's down to $1800.
Rocky Daniels
----------------------------
The following is a message recently received from Bob Izdepski, President of
Sub Ocean Safety.
----------------------------
SUB OCEAN SAFETY is at a do or die crossroads in it's emergency
medical rescue of Miskito Indian lobster divers on the Miskito Coast of
Honduras and Nicaragua. These exploited divers are suffering from a plague
of paralytic decompression disease, ranging up to 30% of the young men and
boys in coastal villages.
We have non-operational recompression chambers in remote locales in both
Honduras and Nicaragua. Just now, thanks in part to contributions received
during the Underwater Miskito Marathon, we have secured two compressor
packages, two sets of chamber gear (gages, regulators, hoses, radios, etc.)
and two ships for transportation.
Cochran Dive Computers has loaned us 20 dive computers with which to
track the dive profiles of the lobster divers. This data will be sent to
DAN, DCIEM and to the SOS hyperbaric research board for evaluation and
studies. Dr. Bob Wong of Australia is the most recent member of our
research board and is the gentleman who successfully reduced the Broome
Pearl Divers percentage of serious decompression disease rates to ZERO, with
his new dive schedules. SOS has great hopes that the same can be done in
Mosquitia.
I am working on some new tables based on scuba tank pressure rather than
time, as the lobster divers have no watches, depth, or pressure gages.
Hopefully, the tanks will be fitted (we need donated 'J' valves) with 'J'
valves having a 500 psi reserve. That reserve will be used for a new, 12
feet per minute compromise ascent rate that Wong's research indicates as
superior.
How do you time your ascent? Any takers?
You start with a weighted shot line hanging off the cayuca at approximate
dive depth. Assuming an average of 12 breaths per minute and an average
hand breadth of 4", climb three hands with every breath. This is stone age
high tech diving, an interesting marriage with a few rocky spots to be
ironed out; but it is a beginning.
Next, we work in a constant 20 minute surface interval for all dives.
Lastly, we add an 'in-water' O2 schedule that varies according to depth and
number of tanks consumed. All of this is loosely related to the studies of
Dr. Carl Edmonds and Dr. Bob Wong. I think it will work with some
tinkering... and may end up changing the face of dive medicine.
How can some Miskitos dive for years with no apparent ill-effects? SOS
wants to know.
What treatment protocol is best for different degrees of decompression
diseases varying from pain only to severe type ll symptoms with varying
times to treatment? SOS wants to know.
SOS doctors will teach classes at the SOS hyperbaric chambers once they're
operational. This teaching will be akin to training a surgeon on a
battlefield. None better.
So it seems like we have made a lot of progress and have everything much
closer to being wrapped up. True.
Here's the rub. SOS has no funds for it's planned February expedition.
I'm tapped out, having spent a personal fortune to get this far.
We can get the two SOS chambers working this February. We can start the
training of divers and local doctors immediately. We can reverse the diver
paralysis epidemic and make this an example to the entire fourth world. We
can make this industry sustainable by limiting dive times. We can cut this
Gordian Knot and change a dark history for the better. We are very close.
The South China Sea has a longer diving history than Mosquitia and I think
that we can glimpse the future through that glass. Throughout Indonesia you
can hear the night time blasting of the reef fish. Cyanide poisoning is the
norm. WHO ARE THE PERPETRATORS?
Most of them are injured diver/fishermen who are afraid or unable to dive
anymore, pushed to these extremes by the pressures of survival. This
world-wide plague of decompression disease is a sore boil on fragile fourth
world societies. No environmental program will mean a thing to these
coastal peoples until some of the pressure is relieved at the root. SOS has
no small part of that cure.
If you can help us now, we hope that SOS will become self sustaining
through our continuing medical education classes coupled with eco/adventure
tours of this fantastic region. We have lined up some of the paralyzed
divers to conduct boat, diving, photographic and sea kayak tours, thus
giving them a chance at productivity and bringing economic diversity to the
region.
SOS needs your help now, as never before. This is our last big push in
Central America, our first major precedent. Welcome to the front lines!
Sincerely,
SOS Board of Directors:
R. Izdepsk New Orleans
J. Bookspan, Ph.D Philadelphia
J. Buchanan, MD Saba School of Medicine, Netherlands Antilles
T. Millington, MD Santa Barbara
B. Nietschmann, Ph.D Berkeley
K. Van Meter, MD New Orleans
D. Youngblood, MD Charleston
SOS Research Board:
Lou Jankowski, Ph.D Montreal
Mike Lepawski Vancouver
Humberto Castro Olayo, MD Puerto Cabezas, Nicaragua
Bob Wong, MD Australia
Milo Woods, MD Calquira, Honduras
--
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