ISSUE 19 ARCHIVE - EDITORIAL

Hello and welcome to Tanked Up: Fit to Dive, the dedicated diver health and training issue. For this issue we have exercised our authority as a specialist dive medicine facility in order to bring you a jam–packed issue full of diver related health, fitnessand safety articles.

First and foremost we are a hyperbaric facility and when you see, assess and treat divers on a daily basis, as we have done for many years now, one feels a certain responsibility to share this knowledge with the wider diving community.

An additional reason for creating a special health related issue for divers was prompted by a recent case of DCI that we had at the Midlands Diving Chamber. Said diver presented to their local GP and ended up waiting 6 months for a referral to a neurologist.

Needless to say the divers condition was rapidly deteriorating and they were at their wits end by the time they reached us.

This case may have been extreme but I have to remind you; if you have been diving and you have symptoms that you didn't have before the dive... then always assume that diving is the cause.

If in doubt, we bust the most common diver myth about DCI and tell you exactly what to do in a diving emergency.

Remember; You wouldn't see a dermatologist for a heart condition, so if in any doubt speak to your local dive doctor!

Also in this issue we introduce the new doctor at our Midlands chamber in Rugby, Dr Mike Gonevski.

All the way from Canada via Dubai, Mike is that rare breed of dive doctor who is also a dive Instructor. There's only a handful in the world with that dual qualification so we're very pleased to welcome him into the fold.

What else is in store for you after this page?

Read on and find out...