Sunday, June 18

Pitfalls in Hyperbaric Facility Safety Management
Francios Burman, Pr Eng, BSc (Eng), MSc

About the Lecture:
Hyperbaric medical practice is very well established in the USA. The regulatory environment, as intended and if complied with, provides safeguards to both the system integrity as well as operation of the facility equipment. Despite access to published safeguards and safety measures, the hyperbaric environment will always present with risks that cannot be fully mitigated. This is no different to the general practice of medicine. While reported accidents have become exceedingly rare, the incidents of non-compliances, near misses and unreported harm or damage are certainly a reality.

This lecture will provide insights into some of the gaps that result in incidents, and describe how industry standards are trying to provide better assurance against these.

About the Speaker:
Francois Burman BSc (Engineering), International PE, MSc (Medical Sciences) is the Director of Risk Mitigation at Divers Alert Network. He is primarily responsible for all safety and accident prevention initiatives, aimed at making diving safer. The recompression chamber network is also his responsibility and he has travel across the world doing safety assessments at facilities used to treat injured divers. He has written a series of books and papers specifically aimed at the hyperbaric and diving industry, and regularly presents lectures on safety in this field. Francois serves on a range of hyperbaric industry committees, including the UHMS Safety Committee and ISO, ASME-PVHO and NFPA standards committees.

Panel: Active shooter and the implications with pressurized vessel environment/operations.
Julio Garcia, RN, Jacquline Hocking, CHT; Geness Koumandakis, CHT, RRT

Food for thought: Assume you are a target... How would you handle an active shooter at your facility?  

• Overview of Active Shooter Events (Julio Garcia) :15"
  
  • Dispelling Myth's 
  • Calibers versus platforms
  • Run, Hide, Fight
  • Stop the Bleed 
• Geness Koumandakis (:15")
• Jacqueline Hocking (:15")
• Panel discussion and Audience (:15")

The first deep hydrogen rebreather dive; an adventure in applied gas physiology
Simon Mitchell, MB ChB, PhD, DipDHM, DipOccMed, FUHM, FANZCA

About the Lecture: 
In February 2023 the Wet Mules cave exploration team performed the first deep rebreather dive incorporating hydrogen in the breathing gas at the Pearse Resurgence cave in New Zealand. We had previously explored the cave to 245m (804') and from there the tunnel continues to descend. Further exploration at even greater depths will encounter increasing problems with respired gas density and the high-pressure neurological syndrome. This presentation will describe how the use of hydrogen may ameliorate both of these problems and tell the story of the first rebreather hydrogen dive. Hydrogen was introduced to an electronic closed circuit rebreather loop below 200m (656') culminating in an inspired hydrogen faction around 35% at the maximum depth of 230m (755'). Observations and dive outcomes will be discussed.  

About the Speaker:

Simon is an anesthesiologist and diving physician. As a technical diver he was a member of teams that were first to dive and identify three historically significant deep shipwrecks in Australia and New Zealand, including one in 2002 which was the deepest wreck dive undertaken worldwide at the time. He was conferred Fellowship of the Explorers’ Club of New York in 2006 and was the DAN Rolex Diver of the Year in 2015. In February 2023 he was a member of the Wet Mules expedition to the Pearse Resurgence cave in New Zealand where a 230 m dive was conducted using hydrogen as a breathing gas on a deep dive for the first time in over 30 years.

Review of Emergency Decompression - bailouts
Sean Hardy, MD

About the Lecture:

About the Speaker:

Dr. Sean Hardy, MD is a board certified emergency medicine physician in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is currently licensed to practice medicine in Louisiana. He is affiliated with University Medical Center.