florida getting ready for bent divers once aircraft carrier is sunk

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Baptist Hospital employees Catherine Suarez and Gregory Taunton
demonstrate use of one of the hospital?s hyperbaric chambers.
KarenaCawthon@PensacolaNewsJournal.com
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Published - February, 28, 2006
Hospital trains for Oriskany diving injuries
Sean Smith @PensacolaNewsJournal.com

The soon-to-be-sunk aircraft carrier Oriskany is expected to become a
prime divers' playground, but local hospitals and emergency officials
are bracing for dive injuries.
Baptist Hospital will be the only local facility with a hyperbaric
chamber to treat civilian dive injuries. The chamber at Pensacola Naval
Air Station is for military divers.
The Baptist chamber, currently used to treat wounds and other ailments,
will be ready for dive injuries by April or May, Dr. Kelli Wells said.
The treatment of dive injuries is a very involved process that requires
enhanced training as well as 24-hour staff, she said.
"What we're doing is increasing the level of training," she said.
"We'll treat dive injuries as they occur, but my real desire is that we
get information out there to prevent the injuries."
Currently, emergency crews divert dive-injury patients to hospitals in
Mobile and Panama City, which each see about a dozen dive-related
injuries a year.
The 32,000-ton, 888-foot long Oriskany, to be sunk before June 1, is
expected to rest at about 210 feet down, 22 miles southwest of
Pensacola Pass. The superstructure will be at about 60 feet and the
flight deck at about 130 feet -- the limit for recreational divers.
"There are a tremendous amount of unknowns," said Navy Cmdr. Ward Reed,
director of the hyperbarics program at the Naval Operational Medicine
Institute at Pensacola Naval Air Station. "What we do know is it's
going to be pretty far out, and it's going to be deep."
Most dive injuries occur from decompression sickness -- dubbed "the
bends" -- which is caused by surfacing too quickly.
"In order to see more of the Oriskany, divers will have to reach
significant depths, and that increases the risk," Wells said. "If
divers alter their plan and stay longer than they should, they run out
of time and then return to the surface too quickly, and they get sick."
For a typical dive to 130 feet, divers have five to eight minutes from
the time they leave the surface, said Reed, who has been advising local
emergency officials for 18 months.
"You get enough time to get down to the flight deck, touch it and look
around," he said. "Then it will be time to leave."
Bay Medical Center in Panama City also is gearing up for a potential
increase from the 10 to 12 dive injuries it treats each year,
spokeswoman Christa Hild said.
The Warrington dive shop MBT Divers is preparing a multimedia briefing
on the Oriskany and plans to take certified advanced scuba divers
there, owner Jim Phillips said.
Oriskany dives should not create too many problems because divers will
be advanced, Phillips said. Escambia County's artificial reef program
includes more than 110 reefs in the area -- most of them at less than
100 feet.
"As long as they put forth a reasonable effort to follow the
guidelines, everybody should be fine," Phillips said.
Robert Turpin, chief of Escambia County Marine Resources Division, said
safety was in the forefront as Oriskany plans were made.
The ship has been stripped of anything of value, he said. The
superstructure, which will be at a shallow depth and likely will be
teeming with sea life, may well be the most attractive part, he said.
But Turpin, who has logged more than 2,500 dives, said caution still
will be critical when diving the Oriskany.
"It is an advanced dive -- it's not for the newly certified, not for
the inexperienced," he said. "Divers are pretty smart, and they are
very well trained. When you put a tank on your back and a mask on your
face, the only thing between you and disaster is yourself.
"There's nothing inside the Oriskany worth dying for."

"Lee Bell" <pleebell2@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:lc9Nf.283$f6.162@bignews1.bellsouth.net...
>> The 32,000-ton, 888-foot long Oriskany, to be sunk before June 1, is
>> expected to rest at about 210 feet down, 22 miles southwest of
>> Pensacola Pass. The superstructure will be at about 60 feet and the
>> flight deck at about 130 feet.
>
> That will make the Spiegel Grove look like a rowboat. I predict, however,
> that the Grove will remain a more popular dive for a number of reasons:
> 1. It's easier to get to. It's a much shorter boat ride.
> 2. It's in shallower water. A recreational diver can get close to the
> bottom without exceeding the standard 130 foot limit.
> 3. Unless you drop near the superstructure, what you'll see is,
> essentially, a flat surface, pretty much like the Grove used to be when on
> its side. A flat surface isn't the most interesting of dives.
> 4. No matter how big a ship it is, you still can't see more than about 100
> feet in either direction. Anything over 200 feet long is going to look
> pretty much like anything else over 200 feet long.
>

yeh, but you know you're going to dive it anyway, right?

"Lee Bell" <pleebell2@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
news:enmNf.1704$o7.364@bignews2.bellsouth.net...
> Just as soon as I can.

Interestingly, I'm probably a bit closer to it than you would be... You're
around 654 miles to Penascola, I'm about 545 miles...

"Grumman-581" wrote

> Interestingly, I'm probably a bit closer to it than you would be... You're
> around 654 miles to Penascola, I'm about 545 miles...

Yep. Florida is a long state in both directions. From here, I have to
cross both the lenth and width of the state to get to Pensacola.

Lee

"Lee Bell" wrote

>> yeh, but you know you're going to dive it anyway, right?
>
> Just as soon as I can.

You know you'll have a buddy interested in that one.

Curtis

Thus spake "Lee Bell" <pleebell2@bellsouth.net> :

>"Grumman-581" wrote
>
>> "Lee Bell" <pleebell2@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
>> news:KPuNf.43034$X7.13731@bignews7.bellsouth.net.. .
>>> Fill Express will rent me manifolded twins.
>>> Don't tell Jayna.
>
>> What, she would feel jealous if she caught you with a set of twins?
>> <dirty-old-man-grin>
>
>Not at all. She's simply kill me.
>How do you manifold that kind of twins?
>Nevermind. I don't want to know.
>
>Lee
>

You don't manifold, you use them indepently. Switch off as needed.

If I get caught, I die. If I don't get caught, I probably still die.
It's just a question of what the coroner decides was the cause of
death. Heart attack or acute lead poisoning.
--
dillon

Could have been is in the past
Could be is in the future
There is only the now

In article <1iff029ae94j1i7ummh2n1bf688bv18jr2@4ax.com>, Dillon Pyron
<dmpyronINVALID@austin.rr.com> wrote:

€ Thus spake "Lee Bell" <pleebell2@bellsouth.net> :
€
€ >"Grumman-581" wrote
€ >
€ >> "Lee Bell" <pleebell2@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
€ >> news:KPuNf.43034$X7.13731@bignews7.bellsouth.net.. .
€ >>> Fill Express will rent me manifolded twins.
€ >>> Don't tell Jayna.
€ >
€ >> What, she would feel jealous if she caught you with a set of twins?
€ >> <dirty-old-man-grin>
€ >
€ >Not at all. She's simply kill me.
€ >How do you manifold that kind of twins?
€ >Nevermind. I don't want to know.
€ >
€ >Lee
€ >
€
€ You don't manifold, you use them indepently. Switch off as needed.
€

Gives new meaning to the term "independant doubles. I'm curious, do you
put your primary on the left post or the right post (i.e., is the
back-up "roll-on" or "roll-off" by default)


€ If I get caught, I die. If I don't get caught, I probably still die.
€ It's just a question of what the coroner decides was the cause of
€ death. Heart attack or acute lead poisoning.

Your wife sounds like an awfully good sport. For some of us, I think
the report might also include terms like, "coarsely removed, with
extensive evidence of tearing."

Alan Street wrote:

> In article <1iff029ae94j1i7ummh2n1bf688bv18jr2@4ax.com>, Dillon Pyron
> <dmpyronINVALID@austin.rr.com> wrote:
>
> € Thus spake "Lee Bell" <pleebell2@bellsouth.net> :
> €
> € >"Grumman-581" wrote
> € >
> € >> "Lee Bell" <pleebell2@bellsouth.net> wrote in message
> € >> news:KPuNf.43034$X7.13731@bignews7.bellsouth.net.. .
> € >>> Fill Express will rent me manifolded twins.
> € >>> Don't tell Jayna.
> € >
> € >> What, she would feel jealous if she caught you with a set of twins?
> € >> <dirty-old-man-grin>
> € >
> € >Not at all. She's simply kill me.
> € >How do you manifold that kind of twins?
> € >Nevermind. I don't want to know.
> € >
> € >Lee
> € >
> €
> € You don't manifold, you use them indepently. Switch off as needed.
> €
>
> Gives new meaning to the term "independant doubles. I'm curious, do you
> put your primary on the left post or the right post (i.e., is the
> back-up "roll-on" or "roll-off" by default)
>
>
> € If I get caught, I die. If I don't get caught, I probably still die.
> € It's just a question of what the coroner decides was the cause of
> € death. Heart attack or acute lead poisoning.
>
> Your wife sounds like an awfully good sport. For some of us, I think
> the report might also include terms like, "coarsely removed, with
> extensive evidence of tearing."


Not to mention the words "dull knife" ....

--


__________________________________________________ _____________________________
"A prudent man foresees the difficulties ahead and prepares for them;
the simpleton goes blindly on and suffers the consequences." - Proverbs 22:3

dazed and confuzzed wrote:
>
> Not to mention the words "dull knife" ....


I wouldn't have thought of the claw end of a hammer as being described
as a "knife".



-hh

-hh wrote:
> dazed and confuzzed wrote:
>> Not to mention the words "dull knife" ....
>
>
> I wouldn't have thought of the claw end of a hammer
> as being described as a "knife".

now that hurts just to think about.


>
>
>
> -hh
>