The Mersing GGK chamber will definitely improve the medical support for
all of us. It
will be shared, but we'll need to know how.
Should any of us be unfortunate enough to get ill after a dive (due to decompression sickness or whatever). The one thing you should do first is to call the Malaysian Diving Emergency Hotline (05-9304114). This 24-hour emergency advisory service will get you in touch with a doctor trained in Diving Medicine. He will help in:
1. Telling you what your illness is.
2. Telling you what to do next (first aid).
3. Where and how to get immediate help (if needed), and then
4. Where and how to get to an
appropriate recompression chamber (there are several places for this - the correct place will be dependent on the patient's condition, time, and location)
Not everyone needs to go to Lumut. For example, yesterday an unfortunate diver with DCS in Sabah called the Hotline. The diving doctor on-call makes a few phone calls. An hour afterwards the ill diver is being sent from Hospital Semporna to Pangkalan TLDM Semporna for recompression at a naval facility there. Today the diver is well.
Not everyone having a diving emergency in Mersing should go to the GGK chamber. Some illnesses should not be recompressed. Some emergencies need to be stabilised first before recompression (usually by emergency room doctors at a nearby hospital). The diving doctor at the hotline shall explain if this is the case.
This is where the hotline saves time. Those of us who are members of Divers Alert Network, do attach the hotline tag to your BC / D-ring. A buddy's phonecall to that number (while the diver is unconscious) can save a life. I have seen this happen. We can even make our own tags.
What NOT to do:
1. Try NOT to go knocking on the Base / Camp asking to be recompressed. They'll just turn us away. Get the diving doctors in Lumut to organise our treatment for us (via the hotline). Avoid delay.
2. Try NOT to delay calling the hotline (e.g. "this is not too serious, I do not want to wake the doctor up" or "I do not want to be recompressed tonight"). No harm in hearing advise immediately. What we do afterwards is totally up to us.
3. Try NOT to attempt in-water recompression. This is only for experts equipped with sophisticated equipment. Even experts (trust me, I know) are afraid of this. It can kill your ill diver easily.
It is wonderful that we have chambers owned by the Navy (Lumut, Kuantan, Labuan, Semporna), Army (Melaka, Mersing), University Sains (Kelantan) and soon, Kementerian Kesihatan (Hospital Kuala Terengganu) to help us. Tie all this up with the hotline, and the diving doctors that run it - we have a helpful tool during emergencies.
Check out this site:
http://iuhm.net/03divinj.htmlBut perhaps the best way to deal with emergencies is not to have an emergency in the first place. Dive conservatively.
