Air bubbles inside brain. could this happen while freediving?

[sdalli]

Yesterday i was at work and suddenly my vision became blurred on the left side, then a headache on the right sight, followed by numbness to various parts of my body on the left side (thighs, thumb, lips and tongue. I went to the doctor tried an ECG and said that my heart beat was too low at 40bpm. blood pressure was normal. so the doctor said that judging from my symptoms it could have been either a migraine or some kind of neural damage like a bubble of air trapped inside my brain caused while diving (this was happened 3 days after i did some 50mtr laps dynamic (with fins) at the pool and two weeks after going 20mtrs deep at sea). I understand that you can get air bubbles while scuba diving but can't see how this could happen while free diving.

Any way i went to the hospital and did a CT scan, which resulted OK and doctors said it was just a tough migraine (I must say it was comparable to the headache i had when i had meningitis).

Does any one know if it's possible to cause a bubble of air in blood while free diving?

 

[chimppingpong]

Firstly let me say that I am no expert.

Having said that I can't think how Freediving will cause an air bubble to form. The main causes for air bubbles in the body are due to either breathing air at a greater pressure than normal atmospheric pressure, and returning to normal pressure too quickly (i.e. decompression sickness from scuba etc).

I can't see how breath holding, even descending to depth, would cause an air bubble to form, as any dissolved gases in your system wont have been dissolved into bodily tissues under pressure.

I may be wrong and will stand corrected if I am.

 

[Johan Andersson]

Does any one know if it's possible to cause a bubble of air in blood while free diving?

In medical/scientific reports, I cannot recall anybody actually witnessing gas bubbles in the blood (e.g. arterial gas embolism). However, there are some reports describing symptoms and signs that could be related to arterial gas embolism after lung packing (glossopharyngeal insufflation). Possibly, also breath-hold diving without packing but with changes in ambient pressure may cause arterial gas embolism, but this risk remains more as a theoretical risk. At least I have no recollection of any study reporting arterial gas embolism in a breath-hold diver if packing was not involved.

So, as an answer to your question: yes, it would be possible to cause arterial gas embolism with free diving.

All cases described so far have developed the symptoms very soon after the dive or packing maneuver, or even during the dive. With your delayed onset of symptoms (3 days after diving), I guess it is not related to arterial gas embolism.

 

[chimppingpong]

So, as an answer to your question: yes, it would be possible to cause arterial gas embolism with free diving.

All cases described so far have developed the symptoms very soon after the dive or packing maneuver, or even during the dive. With your delayed onset of symptoms (3 days after diving), I guess it is not related to arterial gas embolism.

I stand corrected :head

 

[trux]

Just use the search function here on DB for terms like DCS, decompression, or Taravana - it is a very frequently discussed topic, so you will find plenty of useful information. Beside the nitrogen bubbles, packing and full lungs freedivers also risk barotrauma and consequent embolism due to transpulmonary pressure increased by the packing, by diaphragmatic contractions, by body position (i.e. additional chest compression at a duck dive), and by blood-shift (when surfacing). Light tissue fissures due to moderate trachea or lung squeeze then can facilitate the embolism too.

This kind of injury is unlikely at a pool training (unless you are a packing freediver), but well possible already at moderate depths. That told, it does not mean you really suffered from gas embolism. I am just telling that such possibility is very well present, relatively common in freediving, and documented in scientific literature.

 

[Johan Andersson]

Possibly, also breath-hold diving without packing but with changes in ambient pressure may cause arterial gas embolism, but this risk remains more as a theoretical risk.

To explain shortly what I meant, it is possible that a non-uniform expansion of the lungs upon ascent could cause some parts of the lungs to affected by barotrauma, and could thus cause leakage of air into the blood. Also, in some individuals, sections of the lungs could be more susceptible to the change in volume upon ascent.

 

[trux]

Regarding decompression sickness at freedivers, there are a number of scientific papers studying this topic. If interested, on this address, there are 26 of them listed: dcs @ APNEA.cz

 

[trux]

Ah, yes, and another posibility of gas embolism at freediving that I forgot to list, is a forceful equalization, that may contribute to the opening of a patent foramen ovale and lead to cerebral embolism. Source: ingentaconnect Neurological Disorders After Repetitive Breath-Hold Diving

 

[monkeyhatfork]

sounds like an occular migraine, I used to get them when I was younger-just the vision and headache part