Had a mishap this weekend. It’s messed up the forthcoming UK schedule somewhat. The mishap involved completing a 2nd scuba dive off a remote island in the South China Sea called Pulau Tenggol on Saturday the 4th Aug 07 to discover that within minutes of being back on the boat I had severe loss of balance and visual cognition followed by severe vomiting. After an hour or so of oxygen Charlie and Niclas got me to the shore. I could not walk and laid on the beach for most of the afternoon. When I tried to move at about 6pm I was a mess, ending up in a crumpled heap on the beach. A storm was on it’s way in and I needed the hospital. No way the regular boat could do it so the Malaysian Marine Police were summoned and I was evacuated to a jetty on the mainland in a state of the art maritime vessel through the storm to a waiting ambulance and on to a small town hospital 1.5hrs away from Pulau Tenggol on the mainland. Their diagnosis was decompression sickness. I was transported to a 2nd hospital almost 500km’s away in Kota Baru right in the north eastern tip of peninsular Malaysia where they could treat this stuff. It was 5am Sunday morning. I entered their hyperbaric oxygen chamber three times over the nxt two days and showed a little improvement each time. I was discharged Monday the 6th Aug in the afternoon but told to stay in the town overnight. The people were great. One of them drove my truck from the port I originally left it at (Dungun) to the hospital on the Sunday and sat with me for one of the treatment sessions smiling and encouraging me all the way through. The chamber sessions are a challenge. Claustrophobia was my biggest issue. I had a 2hr session followed by 2 * 5hr sessions. I asked for sedation to get me through the last session! The chamber is a monoposition hroizontal acrylic chamber. It does the trick but plays havoc on the anxiety chords. My friend Niclas drove me back from Kota Baru to Ipoh Tues morning 7th Aug. I appear to be continuing to recover (8th Aug 07). Great. I have some lovely friends here who get all concerned for me when stuff goes awry like that. I have learnt a tremendous amount!! Sadly no diving for 6mnths.
Down The Road 