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Alert Diver Article I have worked at DAN® for 23 years. That includes working with the DAN Recompression Chamber Assistance Program since its inception in 1993.
The program assists remote chambers around the world, but DAN America primarily assists those chambers in North and South America and in the Caribbean. DAN's early assistance targeted training programs, educational texts and occasionally new equipment or items required for continuing maintenance.
At the beginning, RCAP listed 13 operational chambers of 16 possible Caribbean and Mexico units. The first RCAP meeting of chambers, the first of its kind to offer educational opportunity for remote chamber operations, took place in 1994 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Participants exchanged ideas and learned from their peers' experience in operating remote chamber programs.
Today RCAP has grown and offers chamber operators opportunities to stay up to date with the standards and codes for safe operation of hyperbaric chambers and with current standards of care for injured divers.
Why is this important? When divers go to remote destinations, they depend on chambers being available.
Has RCAP been a success for recreational divers? Without question.
With the help of DAN Southern Africa (DANSA), DAN has offered direct chamber assessments for the past eight years, assisting chambers with in-depth technical assistance and safety information. Professional engineer Franois Burman, a DANSA staff member, has been working with chambers around the world to help those remote facilities comply with safety standards.
In 1999 DAN Southern Africa began its own recompression chamber assistance program and Burman produced the International DAN Risk Assessment Guide for Recompression Facilities, which is now updated and is used to help assess remote chambers. DAN Europe also began a program that assists the chambers recreational divers depend on.
DAN medical staff have participated in visits to 27 active chambers in the Caribbean and eastern coast of Mexico; these facilities are in the DAN chamber referral network. With the combined efforts of DAN Europe and DAN Southern Africa, 64 of an identified 74 remote facilities have had risk assessments: They have received visits and assistance with compliance and technical information.
A confidence boost When calling DAN, many members ask if there is a chamber at their dive destination. Most divers don't ask; they assume there is one somewhere nearby. Fortunately for us in the United States and for dive travelers to the Caribbean, a chamber is available in most popular locations. DAN's risk assessment validates that for DAN and the chamber operator that operational standards are being met. That is important to you, the diver. It's a confidence boost for the operator and the injured diver.
In 2008, another busy year for RCAP, DAN continued its efforts to work with remote recompression facilities. The RCAP committee, which reviews each RCAP grant submitted, awarded chamber assistance to 16 Latin and Central American chambers. This year DAN increased RCAP funds for educational assistance for physicians and operational staff. We encouraged professional to apply for diving medicine and chamber courses. Efforts included the following:
The RCAP committee also approved a special assistance grant to DAN Asia-Pacific (DAN AP), which has not yet started a formal RCAP. A DAN AP hyperbaric technician will travel to the Philippines to conduct risk assessments on chambers in Cebu and Manila; this is the first risk assessment for both facilities.
The committee approved only two equipment requests in 2008. The chamber in Discovery Bay, Jamaica, requested three new chamber viewports. In late 2008, a new chamber, built in Bonaire by the Bonaire Recompression Chamber Foundation, requested and received medical monitoring equipment - a new patient care monitor and chamber pass-through.
DAN representatives also had the opportunity to conduct RCAP chamber safety and staff development talks for the Curaao hyperbaric chamber at St. Elisabeth's Hospital. During the May Curaao Dive festival, DAN representatives conducted safety lectures during the day and presented educational talks each evening on a variety of dive safety medical issues.
RCAP's newest offering
The newest RCAP educational program, the chamber attendant and operators course, was developed in cooperation with International DAN (IDAN), with the genesis of the initial course curriculum coming from DAN Southern Africa. In August the RCAP team visited another new chamber facility, this one on the island of Dominica. This was the first time the course was given in this hemisphere. The plan is to take the program to the greatest areas of need twice a year, more if required to meet the need.
The chamber operations course, a weeklong program to teach chamber staff the operation procedures for hyperbaric chambers, is customized to each individual facility. Ultimately, the course will identify at each chamber a trainer who can take over the instructional program and repeat it for that facility.
In 2008, we completed some projects; some we just began. But it's like that every year with remote chambers seeking and receiving assistance through RCAP. The program runs 100 percent on donations from DAN Members. These donations can be spent only on equipment, medical and technical education, chamber assessment and aid in achieving compliance with medical and safety standards. RCAP pays no salaries to either chamber or DAN staff.
Each year fewer than 500 of DAN's 150,000 members contribute $10 or $20 to the RCAP and a few gave $100 or more. While DAN is doing the work, this handful of members make RCAP possible for remote chambers by contributing money for projects. With members' help, DAN will continue to help remote chambers, ensuring there is a chamber with high medical and safety standards for you in an emergency.
Risk Assessment Crucial Offering of RCAP
Risk assessments continue to be a major request from chambers, and they are usually conducted twice for each facility.
Ultimately, assessment leads to the facility's performing an annual risk assessment without DAN's assistance. Because chamber personnel change often, education provides continuity for RCAP facilities; from one assessment to the next, there may be only one or two staff members remaining from the previous assessment.
As with any company or corporation, when volunteers or employees leave, vast experience and company memory go with them. Reassessment and education programs go hand and hand in maintaining the core strength of each facility.
The year started in Costa Rica with the assessment of three almost identical hyperbaric chambers currently not in operation. Their strengths and weaknesses were evaluated; they will serve both the recreational and the local populations. At present, when a dive injury occurs, divers have to be transported back to the capital city of San Jose, which takes several hours and is at an elevation of more than 4,000 feet (1,220 meters). Working with the local government, DAN was able to help build a path that will result in all three chambers being available, the first in Puntarenas in 2009.
The most active chambers in Honduras were also assessed in 2008. The Roatan chamber at Anthony's Key and the Utila chamber at the Utila Dive Lodge each got an RCAP visit. Both are in service for recreational divers, but they also serve the local lobster-diving community. A second visit to Honduras in 2009 will conduct material updates; both chambers received approvals for educational programs.
Pacific Grove Ocean Rescue in California also received an RCAP assessment visit. This was the second visit to PGOR, which was not in operation while waiting to replace storage tank safety valves.
© Alert Diver November / December 2008 |
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