Interview with Guy Thomas - Head of Training DAN Europe

During the 7th Dan Divers Day, we learned many fascinating things about diving medicine. Despite the many responsibilities that fall on the organisers during such an event, we managed to talk to Guy Thomas, head of the DAN Europe training department.

-- Advertisement --

Adam Siczkowski: Hi Guy, 7th DAN Day is a really great event.

Guy Thomas: Hello, thank you very much! Organising such events is one of our goals.

A: The theme of the conference was: ” New perspectives in diving medicine”, tell us where the immediate future of diving medicine is focused?

G: What’s new in diving medicine is taking the divers’ perspective, by which I mean fully understanding their needs. A lot has changed over the years. Divers used to be seen as young, strong athletes with good fitness. Now the situation is different: anyone can learn to dive and the average age of a diver is around 40. This means being faced with problems and health issues that are common to this population in general: asthma, overweight, etc. Recreational diving medicine also tries to provide reliable answers to such questions.

A: Uli van Laak gave a lecture on secondary recompression in water. So far in Poland this method was considered to be risky. What is DAN’s position on this issue?

G: Indeed, recompression in water is risky and should not be used except under special circumstances and strict medical control.

Guy Thomas – Director of the Training Department of DAN Europe. He is responsible for all the training programmes, from the oxygen rescuer to AED operation and neurological tests.

A: We know that DAN has been conducting research since 1994. Tell us something about your recent projects and future plans.

G: We are currently conducting a wide variety of research. Some recent ones include :
– a project called PHYPODRE (physiopathology of decompression), in collaboration with 13 other entities, organisations and universities. These include the Medical University of Gdansk,
– research about diving and diabetes,
– comparative studies of nitrox and air to see which mixture is safer and causes fewer bubbles.

We also focus our attention on other aspects of diving, such as breath-hold diving and closed circuit diving. In breath-hold diving, we study phenomena such as “Taravana” or lung “comets”.

Dan is regarded as one of the world leaders in diving safety medicine and research, and as a result we work hard to maintain our good reputation. One thing I would like to stress is that all research projects are funded entirely by membership fees.

A: Research is not the only field in which DAN works. What else are you working on?

G: An important part of our mission is to provide high quality accident management and better service to our members. This includes, among other things, preparing new, carefully tailored insurance policies for recreational divers, professional divers and diving clubs. However, we do not forget to serve the entire diving community, through various initiatives such as assisting remote decompression chambers or running safety campaigns. We also do this by organising conferences and meetings, which are free and open to all, like the one in Gdansk, to spread awareness among divers.

A: Better awareness means safer diving. Tell us about the training programmes run by DAN.

G: Danu programmes are special first aid courses for divers. These trainings are not meant to prevent injuries, they are meant to make divers know how to behave during an accident. We call this ‘secondary dive safety’. While the most important thing is to prevent injuries from occurring, secondary safety is to prevent an accident from turning into a disaster. The reality is that without first aid, the diver’s condition will not improve, and this can result in many post-treatment sequelae.

DAN Europe offers 11 different first aid courses. The courses can be offered on their own or in combination with others, so that divers can receive a comprehensive knowledge of diving first aid. In Poland, these courses are offered by about 250 DAN instructors and by 30 Instructor Trainers, who have issued more than 2,000 certificates over the last few years. Among the courses offered by DAN, there are Oxygen Rescuer courses, Basic CPR course, Neurological Assessment course or Diving Medicine course. All those who pass these courses will become DAN rescuers and as long as their certificates are valid, they will have access to up-to-date first aid guidelines in Polish on the DAN website.

A: It is a great pleasure to be hosting the 7th DAN Diving Day. Why did you choose Poland?

G: It was also a great pleasure for us to organise this event in Gdansk! We’ve previously been to Rome, Brussels, Porto, Graz, Düsseldorf, and Istanbul. This was the first time we have organised such a large event in Poland, but certainly not the last. What’s more, the Medical Academy was an ideal place to organise such an event.

A: What is the position of DAN in Poland, compared to other countries?

G: We are quite active in Poland, both in terms of membership and training. The DAN office is located in Gdynia at the National Centre for Hyperbaric Medicine, under the leadership of Dr Sićko and Dr Kot, recognised specialists in both diving and hyperbarics. The Polish diving community is growing and we are watching it with great interest. Since 2009, our quarterly magazine Alert Diver has also been published in Polish. At the same time, we are working on the Polish version of our website to make information and membership available to everyone.