Page 10 - AlertDiver_Spring2013

8 | SPRING 2013
FROM THE SAFETY STOP // P E R S P E C T I V E S
O ne of the most valuable services Divers Alert
Network® provides to the diving community
is the DAN® Emergency Hotline (+1-919-684-
9111). Through this hotline, DAN is here for
you 24/7/365 to assist with all kinds of medical emergencies
— whether they’re related to diving or not. No matter where
you are in the world, DAN is just a phone call away. You can
even call us collect; we want to ensure there are no obstacles
to prevent you from reaching us. It is our mission to
provide immediate and thorough responses to any medical
emergencies you, our members, face.
In the U.S. and Canada, the appropriate response to any
serious medical emergency is to dial 911. Emergency medical
capabilities in some countries, however, are not as robust
as those we have come to rely on at home, and in some
cases they are nonexistent. You should always try to engage
local emergency medical services (EMS) in the event of an
emergency, but your second call should be to DAN.
The value of the DAN Emergency Hotline cannot be
overstated in such situations. DAN is your lifeline to
proper medical assistance. When you call DAN you will
be connected with a physician, nurse, medic or other
medical professional who is highly trained and qualified
in emergency medicine and dive-accident response. By
consulting with the medical personnel on site, DAN will
ensure that you receive the most appropriate and timely
care for the medical condition you face. The DAN team
has extensive experience managing emergencies. In 2012
alone, DAN handled 4,382 calls to the emergency line and
responded to an additional 8,681 medical inquiries. No
one knows more about dive medicine than DAN.
In the midst of the uncertainty that follows an accident,
it is important to keep in mind that symptoms that occur
after diving do not always indicate decompression illness.
Treatment in a hyperbaric chamber may not be necessary,
and a recommendation to get hyperbaric treatment “just
in case” may do more harm than good. If symptoms were
actually due to a cardiac event such as a heart attack or a
neurological event unrelated to diving such as a stroke, a
lengthy chamber treatment initiated prior to diagnostic
testing could be dangerous or even deadly. It is essential that
injured divers receive proper triage, and this may mean initial
evaluation at a medical facility that does not have a chamber.
The DAN Medical Services team maintains an up-to-
date database of available physicians, hospitals, clinics and
other medical facilities around the world. It’s important to
remember that facilities, particularly in those remote areas,
may close unexpectedly or be out of service for any number
of reasons. Contact with DAN will minimize your chance of
wasting precious time seeking services that may prove to be
unnecessary or unavailable.
If you purchase a DAN dive accident insurance plan, DAN
will make sure that all covered expenses are paid up to the
limits of the policy purchased. On-site service providers
should never ask you for full payment, copays or deductibles
since the DAN programs are designed to eliminate the need
for you to make out-of-pocket payments. We do everything
necessary to guarantee payment, including providing a credit
card or completing a wire transfer to cover charges. But we
need your help: You must take the initiative to call DAN first
(after EMS) for us to be able to assist. It is much easier for us
to steer an unfortunate accident toward a positive outcome if
we are able to engage in the process from the earliest stages.
Additionally, the DAN Emergency Hotline is your
resource for accessing your DAN TravelAssist® membership
benefits. When you are more than 50 miles away from home
and need to activate your TravelAssist benefit, call the DAN
Emergency Hotline. This is most important in situations that
involve medically necessary evacuations, and the program
requires that DAN arrange the evacuation. If you, the local
dive operator or the local medical-care provider makes
the arrangements, the costs may not be covered. When
you coordinate through DAN, all expenses will be paid. In
addition to saving you considerable anxiety, a simple call to
+1-919-684-9111 can save you tens of thousands of dollars
in emergency evacuation charges.
We hope you have exciting and worry-free trips whenever
you travel to participate in the sport we all love. But if
something happens, we want you to remember that DAN is
here for you. AD
DAN’s Emergency Hotline
B y W i l l i a m Z i e f l e