My name is Julika… DAN was there for me?

It is always a source of great joy for the DAN team to hear testimonials from our members. Therefore I want to share another DAN member story with you!

I had a major diving crisis. It was on a remote island in West Papua in Indonesia.
Without DAN I dread to think what would have happened to me.

The reality is that I could be blind, paralysed - or dead. There was no satellite phone, no cell phone reception, no one with any medical expertise and a boat once a week to the nearest little airport.

Actually it was a beautiful, idyllic diving location - like a dream beyond my dreams - turquoise waters, fabulous fish life, giant mantas … yet it turned into a nightmare.
I had dived for a few days, easy, shallow, slow-ascent dives, plenty of stops and maximum depths of 20m.

But all of a sudden I had critical symptoms - tingling in my hand, arm and foot. I was aware of the risks and I was really concerned, but the other divers had no way of helping me, nor did the lovely dive guides.

I waded through the sea to another part of the island and climbed a three-storey bamboo tower to get a phone signal!

Initially I contacted my mother, who’s a General Practitioner and she admitted GPs aren’t trained in diving medicine. What happens to a human body at depth and under pressure is specialist medicine.

Then my partner, who’s a diver himself, managed to find DAN Southern Africa.
Suddenly we were talking directly to a doctor trained in hyperbaric medicine, a professional with serious diving knowledge.

I was alone with a diving emergency and I can’t even begin to tell you what it meant to have someone listening, understanding and offering me a 24 hour lifeline.

DAN was the first to take my situation seriously …even though I was on the other side of the world, I felt someone was taking care of me.

Actually I was connected with the Medical Director of DAN Southern Africa and my symptoms pointed clearly towards Decompression Sickness. He advocated immediate evacuation to a recompression chamber.

My insurance company in Johannesburg asked if my sickness was contagious and said they’d plan for a local doctor to come and visit me. There was only one boat a week to the island, so that would mean in about a week’s time - if at all - and a local doctor with probably no knowledge of diving medicine.

The phone operator had never heard of ‘decompression sickness’, nor did she realise that time is a vital factor. She honestly had no idea what I was talking about, even though my policy did cover diving.

What was amazing is that DAN was taking action right away. My crisis became DAN's focus and even though Indonesia was seven hours ahead of South Africa they were helping me at all crazy hours.

Actually they contacted DAN Asia, found my island’s GPS location, put together an evacuation plan, assessed nearest recompression chambers, wrote a note to the airline I’d be flying on, contacted the navy hyperbaric doctor in Singapore, and worked out that my chances of recovery were higher if I could get to the chamber in Singapore.

When I arrived late at night, a hyperbaric team was waiting for me - all thanks to DAN.
By this time I was in a pretty bad state with tingling, numbness and aching in my fingers, toes, arm and side…

I was given Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for about 15 hours. If I’d relied on my insurance company, I’d have still been on the little island - and perhaps not have made it.

When I finally got back to Cape Town, the DAN doctor saw me for tests and a report.
The most likely causes for my DCS are SPINAL DECOMPRESSION SICKNESS due to nerve or tissue damage around my lower back from a serious car accident - or SALT WATER ASPIRATION SYNDROME from a faulty demand valve that I’d rented.

We’ll never know for sure.

What I do know is that I’ve never experienced such care and professionalism and I can never forget what DAN did for me or ever thank them enough.

Alert Diver and the DAN Blog is read almost exclusively by the DAN members. As such, important messages like Julika’s do not reach non-members unless DAN members make the material available to them or talk to them about it. As such, I would really like to ask you, as a loyal DAN member, to tell your diving buddies about DAN and the value of being a DAN member. DAN is so much more than diving medical cover. DAN represents a culture of care, a heart for diving. It goes beyond helping in the occasional emergency towards serving and protecting the very enjoyment of this wonderful sport of diving!

We’d like to ask you a favour! Do you mind posting a Google Review via the DAN Google platform? It will be great if you can add any images you have with a DAN flag, t-shirt, sticker etc. or at your favourite dive shop or dive site. More importantly is the review! You can use this link https://bit.ly/dangooglereview

We look forward to reading your DAN review!