Cozumel, Mexico, is one of the world’s top recreational dive destinations, and a new facility aims to provide divers there with the highest level of medical care.
The Costamed Hyperbaric Center, which opened in November 2013, was immediately accepted as a Preferred Provider in DAN’s new Recompression Chamber Network.
“A lot of effort and resources were put into the project to comply with — and even surpass — international standards,” said Jorge Dario Gomez Castillo, M.D., a hyperbaric medicine specialist who serves as medical director for the chamber at the Costamed Medical Group’s Cozumel Medical Center (costamed.com.mx).
This is not Cozumel’s only hyperbaric chamber, but this new hospital-based multiplace chamber, which accommodates up to 10 patients, raises the region’s profile in dive medicine. “There are so many divers in Cozumel at any given time that knowing there is this full-service hyperbaric facility instills a great deal of confidence,” said Matias Nochetto, M.D., director of DAN’s Recompression Chamber Network. “I would go so far as to say that of the approximately 40 chambers in the Caribbean and Central and South America, this one is certainly among the top five in terms of build quality,” Nochetto said.
While the chamber itself is important, the setting is crucial because diagnosing decompression sickness is as much about determining what’s not wrong as what is. “Many things can happen before, during or after diving that do not warrant a chamber or a hyperbaric medicine specialist. Shoulder pain following a dive could be DCS, but it could also be a heart attack, and it’s the heart attack that needs to be ruled out first,” Nochetto said.
That’s why DAN advises its members in trouble go to the closest hospital, not necessarily the closest hyperbaric chamber. Hospital-based chambers are the best of both worlds. “Being able to bring in many different specialists to check a patient and help you rule things out is a luxury not many recompression chambers in the Caribbean have. It makes the whole process much more efficient, and it ensures the best possible care for the patient,” Nochetto said. Gomez Castillo concurs, noting the excellence of Costamed’s staff and training. “The human resources coupled with the right technology is always the best combination.”
Since the new chamber became operational, 17 divers have been evaluated for possible decompression sickness and two have received recompression treatment after DCS was confirmed.
“DAN’s new Recompression Chamber Network Preferred Provider designation means that not only is the diver at a facility we trust, but also the hospital administration has agreed to make the admission and treatment fees a nonissue for our members. All the member needs to do is walk in, receive care and walk out,” said Nochetto.
The Preferred Provider designation is important to the Costamed facility, Gomez Castillo said. “It is a big honor to be one of the first facilities in the new network and to represent DAN in a dive destination as popular as Cozumel. This comes with great responsibility, too, which makes us work hard every day to provide the best medical care that DAN members and all our patients deserve.”
© Alert Diver — Q2 Spring 2014