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At 3:50 PM 12/8/94, <Christina_Young@Wa*.Me*.co*> wrote:
[ SNIP ]
>I would think that in most cases, it would take more than 30 minutes.
>Comments, anyone?
>
>Christina
While Christina is possibly correct and that the time between the call to
the Coast Guard and the time that the patient actually begins recompression
in the chamber is longer than 30 minutes, it's not as clear a question as
it first appears.
The only time that counts, as far as I'm concerned, is the time until a
patient can get picked up for transport to the chamber. "What if that
person is in for a two hour ride to the chamber after that, though?
Doesn't mean that the person is, for all intents and purposes, untreated
for 2 hours?" Yes, it does. However, at that point you're balancing two
things. First, it is a given that treating DCI as soon as possible after
the onset of symptoms is a "good thing". On the other hand, treatment with
professionals in controlled circumstances is also a "good thing". Let's
assume that you the coast guard could get to you in 1/2 an hour (because
they have a base nearby), but that it will be 1 + 1/2 hours before you can
enter a chamber (because the nearest available chamber is 1 + 1/4 hours
flight time and it takes 1/4 hour from landing to entry into chamber).
Should you have the helicopter standby (or not call them) and attempt IWR
instead?
I have a gut instinct that says "no". What if it will be 4 hours until
entry into the chamber? Now my instincts say, "Depends on the severity of
symptoms".
"I'll get around to it today --
For sufficiently large values of 'today'"
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