Dive expert suffers decompression sickness

After making more than 1,000 scuba dives over the past 15 years, Jerry Blaski knew what the pink patch on his skin, blurry vision and nausea meant.

The 60-year-old dive instructor from Sayville on Saturday had developed decompression sickness -- what divers and underwater construction workers call "the bends."

And that meant first aid on the dive boat, transfer to a Coast Guard search-and-rescue boat and then a Coast Guard helicopter, and six hours in a hyperbaric chamber at Mather Hospital in Port Jefferson.

But Blaski was lucky. Though decompression sickness can be fatal or crippling, he suffered no lasting effects.

The technical diving instructor with expertise in deep diving and mixed gases for breathing was on the Freeport-based dive boat Lockness 35 miles southeast of Fire Island Inlet to dive on the wreck of a wooden schooner sitting in 195 feet of water.

Blaski said he completed two dives breathing trimix, a mixture of oxygen, helium and nitrogen designed to reduce buildup of nitrogen in the body, which causes the bends. He said he followed the tables that specify the time limits for a dive at the depth, the ascent time and decompression time on the way up to eliminate nitrogen bubbles from the bloodstream, and spent more than the recommended time onboard between dives.

But after the second dive, the employee of a travel tour company said, "I got on the boat and out of my equipment, and I started not feeling good about 30 minutes after the dive. I was getting blurred vision," and he was nauseous and saw the pink patch on his skin. He alerted the crew, laid down and began breathing from his tank of pure oxygen -- the recommended initial treatment for decompression sickness.

Several crew members who are EMTs began to assist and monitor him while Lockness Capt. John Gorman called the Coast Guard. "These guys are superb," Blaski said.

A 47-foot boat from Coast Guard Station Fire Island arrived and took him aboard and then transferred him to a helicopter dispatched from Cape Cod for the ride to Mather.

Though the pink patch, or rash, disappeared as he breathed oxygen, Blaski was still suffering from severe back and stomach pain. He said he was hit by a car 30 years ago and has problems with several vertebrae. He was also severely dehydrated, which caused kidney problems that were resolved by intravenous fluids.

"It was the domino effect," he said. "Three or four things happened at once."

Blaski was placed in a hyperbaric chamber early Sunday morning and kept in the hospital for observation until Tuesday.

Asked if the experience will change how he dives, Blaski replied, "I'm going to be more conservative and watch my health."