Newtown’s ‘Diver Doctor’ Playing Greater Role In Safety Training

By John Voket

A Newtown resident and emergency physician has become the first in Connecticut to be Board Certified in undersea and hyperbaric medicine. Dr David Charesh, a recreational diver himself, also established the state’s first public safety diving symposium last year at Danbury Hospital, where he admittedly does not see too many diving-related emergencies.

But, he told The Newtown Bee, his concern extends not only to individual recreational divers like himself, but to those first responders who head into the water at a moment’s notice to affect a rescue, whether it is a possible drowning victim, a boat or motor vehicle crash on the water, or to assist one of their own who may be stricken with an underwater emergency during a rescue or practice drill.

That concern prompted Dr Charesh to seek advanced credentialing through the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine Society. And armed with his new knowledge, and the hyperbaric chamber and related technology available at Danbury Hospital, he hopes to make Danbury a regional or possibly a national destination for rescue divers looking to fulfill the latest health certification recommended by the International Association of Safety Divers.

In the meantime, Dr Charesh is continuing his work helping local and state rescue divers understand the health risks of their profession, and what to do if a colleague falls ill or experiences a diving-related emergency.

“Public safety divers like those volunteers on our own NUSAR [Newtown Underwater Search And Rescue] team are dedicated rescue professionals, but they know just like their colleagues on state and municipal dive teams that their work is very dangerous,” Dr Charesh said. “They are often working in zero or near-zero visibility, sometimes 20 or 30 feet down in extreme cold or heat where victims sometimes have only minutes to survive.”

As the recently named medical director of Danbury’s Wound Care Center, Dr Charesh believes the hospital, with its proximity to diverse diving opportunities available at Candlewood Lake, is a natural site to not only hold diver safety training, but a venue where candidates can receive their safety diver medical certification.

His 2010 symposium hosted 160 attendees from throughout the region, and he is expecting that to generate many more attendees for his next event.

“You see recreational divers, public safety divers, and scientific divers each have their own requirements for certification,” he said. “Recreational divers fill out a form and never have to again unless there is a change in their medical condition, like developing high blood pressure.”

For public safety and scientific divers, however, the medical certification is much more complicated, mirroring the greater risks involved.

“The International Association of Safety Divers suggest getting medical certification by a specialist in diving medicine, and it was my goal to become that competent professional,” he said. “There are more than 8,000 safety divers registered in the United States, and probably close to 1,000 in Connecticut and the region.”

His most recent workshop for several local dive teams started with a classroom review of the safety diver medical exam guidelines, discussed diver emergency scenarios, the potential for incidents to occur, and the underlying medical conditions that can be exacerbated under certain stressful conditions.

Then it was over to Candlewood, where divers practiced reaction to medical emergencies among their own.

“I’m interested in educating them on the medical aspects of an injured diver, and what happens if a diver under water develops a problem and how divers on shore should react, recover, and treat an acute medical condition related to the dive,” Dr Charesh said.

The workshop then adjourned back to the classroom where the group discussed issues such as post-traumatic stress.

“A dive rescue, especially one that is not successful, can certainly effect a diver long term,” he said. “So it was important to address these issues as a team, to learn how to express feelings which could, if not properly dealt with, cause an individual to experience post-traumatic stress.”

Since his completion of the highest level of training in diving medical fitness, Dr Charesh expects to see many more divers seeking the appropriate level of health certification through Danbury Hospital.

“I would hope, since that resource in now available, that divers across the region and elsewhere in the country would consider that level of training when seeking a medical evaluation,” Dr Charesh said.