Heat Stroke

I feel dizzy was all she said. Before that, there were no signs. 20 minutes later she was semi-conscious and on her way to the hospital. It's amazing how quickly our bodies can shut down.

Friday, my last full day in Tofo. We'd booked a double dive trying to make the most of the day. The volunteer coordinator wasn't so happy that we'd taken things into our own hands as were supposed to all be going out on the same ocean safari as the official end to our research trips, but we didn't care. By this point, we knew we enjoyed diving a lot more than just driving around in the boat hoping to see something and I was on the hunt to see a Manta Ray, something which had eluded me all month.

It was a beautiful day- sunny and warm. The rest of the week had been rainy and overcast so, it was nice to see the sun again. The boat launch went well. You never know just how it's going to go. Sometimes the boat gets pushed back onto shore by waves, sometimes the boat is too far in the water for me to jump up, but this day everything went smoothly.

On the trip were two German men whose names I didn't bother to learn, an Isreali guy who was just completing his open water, so, nice enough but couldn't dive worth shit, Nicole, Dymphna, myself and the crew- Nick the owner, Lobo a dive master and Neo the skipper. A nice little group heading out for a couple of dives with a little ocean safari in between to look for whale sharks. The first site we went to was Outback which is so named because it's one of the farthest sites away. It takes about 35-45 minutes to get there by boat during which time you're wearing your wetsuit. By wearing a wetsuit you basically turn your body into the inside of a tire. You encase yourself in 5mm of black rubber, which is fine if you're in the water, but sitting in the boat, in the sun, it's stiffling to say the least. We complained about being hot and took turns dumping water down each other's suits and even got to swim with a whale shark on the way to the site- a nice treat.

Outback had seen a lot of action in the last week. A lot of mantas had been in the area as well as small eyed stingrays and other oceanic wonders. However, the current had also been a little crazy lately so we weren't sure what we were going to get. It turned out that that day there was a lovely current, moving in the right direction so we were able to glide gently around the reef and enjoy the view. It was a beautiful dive, unfortunately, no mantas.

Back on the surface, the sun was still shining as we enjoyed our incredible sandwiches. It's amazing how after having a limited diet for a few weeks, something as simple as a turkey sandwich can taste gourmet. Sandwiches, coco biscuits and bananas finished it was off on the hunt for a whale shark. It took us a while, during which time we were entertained by the the seasickness of one of the German guys. I know it's not nice to laugh at someone else's pain, but this man did nothing by complain, so watching him so obviously suffering just made us laugh. We eventually found one, had a lovely swim and it was off to site two.

Our second dive was at a site called Giant's Castle. Another popular site with a reputation for whale sharks. This dive did not go quite as smoothly. There was a fairly strong current and it was difficult to get down to the reef. It was especially difficult for me because I was having a hard time getting my ears to equalize so, poor Lobo had me hanging off the buoy line for a significant amount of time, which is definitely not easy. I'm not sure if my ears eventually equalized or if I just blew an ear drum, but we might explore that one a little later. I did make it down to the bottom though and we let the current direct the dive every now and then holding on to the reef so that you could actually see something. I like diving with a current because in a strange way, it makes you slow down because it forces you to look closer at the reef. You have time to sit and look at the small things that are directly in front of you. Because you need to hold on, you can focus on that one place and see all the little shrimp, nudibrank, coral, lobsters and a million other things that you would otherwise miss. On this particular dive, I came across a lovely little pinnacle covered in shrimp, a moray eel and a lobster. Awesome.

And that was it. My diving in Tofo was over. We headed home, had an uneventful landing (which is good because sometimes they can be really rough) and headed up the beach to the dive centre to clean up our stuff and go home for a nap. About halfway up the hill, Dymphna stopped. This is not Dymphna. She is tough; she is strong; and she is proud. She would never admit to being tired or not being able to keep up unless something were very wrong. I was able to get her to sit down on the stairs for a few minutes. She was dizzy and weak and feeling nauseous. Being a great sufferer of heat related illnesses, I recognized the symptoms right away. After a few minutes, she was able to get up and made it to the top of the stairs where there is a big umbrella and some chairs. We got her some water and rehydration salts but she seemed to be getting more and more tired. Still not ready to admit that anything was truly wrong, the panic set in when her right arm went numb. It was at this point that we all realized this was far worse than we had thought. Nicole ducked into the dive office to ask for oxygen while I worked at keeping Dymphna calm. She still had her wetsuit halfway on which meant that from the waist down she was still heating up. Nick grabbed ice which Nicole held to the back of her neck, Steve called over the 'doctor', I started pouring water over her legs and someone else started fanning her with a clip board. She sat slumped, her right arm dangling and her energy just fading away. We tried a couple of time to get her to walk to the dive centre where there was a couch for her to lie down on out of the sun, but she couldn't walk. Nick drove the pickup over so that she could just climb into it, but when we got her to stand, she couldn't move her feet. At this point, she started to slip in and out of consciousness. There would be moments where she could respond to questions, and she would yell at the doctor as he yanked on her fingers but then she would slump back down and not respond to anything. It was time to get her into the shade and get the wetsuit off. The great thing about a dive centre is there are always lots of strong men around. Nick, Steve and a couple of other guys grabbed various limbs and dragged her onto the truck. It wasn't pretty, but it worked. She was driven into the shade, we got her wetsuit off, and put a fan on her. She was breathing forced oxygen and we had her packed in ice to bring down her core body temperature.

Now, I have to mention just how interesting it was to watch the two owners of the dive shop deal with the situation. Steve was very nonchalant and in between moments of giving orders how to treat Dymphna, he was schmoozing clients and helping them make plans for their trip. Nick, on the other hand was like a worried father, running around from place to place getting everything we needed. He got ice, he got a yoga mat to put in the back of the truck, he got towels to wrap the ice in, he got a fan, he filled water bottles...both were amazing and very in control.

Lying in the shade, she started to come round. The doctor hovering over her, taking every opportunity to wipe the sweat off her breast (you may remember mention of this doctor in an earlier post where he was videotaping us as we put our wetsuits on), he declared that her temperature was back to normal and that we could start to get her ready to go to the hospital to which point Dymphna declared “I am not going to the hospital.” At this point we knew that she would be ok. The Dymphna that we knew and loved was back. Encouraged by her remark, we started to tease her and she responded with gusto even managing to pick out the right finger to give the appropriate response.

It was time to get her to the hospital. We grabbed some of her stuff, put her on a mattress and off she went to get some good IV fluids. A couple of hours later she was home with strict orders to take it easy and not do anything for the next five days. The next morning she was back on Facebook talking about her near death experience and I knew that she would be ok.

What was amazing was how fast it all happened. She was fine during the dives. There were no symptoms on the boat. We had no clue that anything was wrong and then it only took about 10 minutes for her to loose consciousness. Just goes to show how careful and aware you have to be. These things can happen anytime, anywhere, to anyone- even those people who seem to be invincible. The ironic part is that Dymphna had been looking after all of us for the four weeks we were together. She was a vet and her father a doctor, so medicine was in her blood. Any opportunity to help someone and she was there. None of us thought that she would be the one who would need the most serious treatment.

Now, I know that Dymphna wanted to make my last day really special but really, a nice card would have done just fine. I am glad that you're ok Dymphna and it really was an incredible four weeks, but if you ever do anything like that to me again, I will kick your ass! Thanks for making it so memorable.