Kategorie: News
How DAN’s Emergency Medical Network Made A Difference
The incident: A Finnish diver and her diving partner start the first dive of the day in Lake Vesijako. In 6° C cold water they descend to two metres when the diver has to stop the dive because the pressure equalisation on her right ear does not work. When the ear still feels blocked and slightly painful two days later, she decides to visit the doctor at the local health centre.
The doctor diagnoses inflammation of the middle ear and sends her home with a prescription for antibiotic ear drops. The following night, however, a sharp earache sets in and the ear begins to bleed. The diver calls the local hospital and has some tests done. Again she is sent home and continues the therapy with the ear drops.
After almost a week, the pressure on the right ear still persists and the diver's hearing is limited. She starts to worry and emails DAN Europe (emergency@daneurope.org) hoping to get in touch with an ear specialist who knows about diving injuries. She wants to make sure she will not suffer any permanent damage and to know when she would be able to dive again.
The DAN hotline team immediately opened a medical file, contacted the diver by phone and introduced her to the Dive Medical Officer (DMO) of DAN Europe Finland. After talking to the diver and reviewing the medical record, the doctor determined that she had had an external ear squeeze due to her drysuit hood at the beginning of the dive which forced her to terminate the dive.
Barotrauma diagnosis
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Our DMO says: "Because of the bloody and swollen ear canal, I think the cause is barotrauma, not infection. Unfortunately, the GP either misdiagnosed the barotrauma as an infection or missed it because of the secondary infection that developed. In my opinion, it is a diving injury which is covered by insurance."
The DMO then provided her with a referral to an Ear, Nose and Throat (ENT) specialist who was also a diving physician and so very familiar with this type of diving injury. The diver saw the specialist and forwarded the results to the DAN Europe team, which they then shared with the Finnish DMO for advice and a medical opinion. “The report was very clear and along the same lines as my interpretation that the primary insult was external ear barotrauma and prescribed drops for the ear. The ENT specialist also suggested that it may be beneficial to perform oro-nasal endoscopy to control the situation.”
The hotline team then arranged another call for the diver to discuss her case with the local DMO, who instructed her to protect the perforated ear from water and let it heal. If there is any more pain, or any excretion comes from the ear, she was told to get in contact again with the ENT. They also scheduled her for a control visit in one month’s time to check that the perforation and ear canal were well healed.
With the acute phase of the injury now over, the DAN Europe hotline team closed the emergency assistance file, and the claims department contacted the diver to proceed with the administrative side of the case. The diver promptly provided all the documentation needed to file the claim for her medical expenses. A few weeks later, the diver was reimbursed for the doctor visits, medicines and transportation costs related to the acute phase of her diving accident that occurred within her country of residence.
More information:
DAN Europe Website