Being able to provide oxygen to an injured diver can save a life. Some conditions caused by diving that could benefit from breathing pure oxygen are: Decompression illness, lung over-expansion injury, carbon monoxide poisoning, hypoxia, air embolism and lung squeeze.
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When providing oxygen:
- Keep smoking people away and stop fires (for example cooking fires) to reduce explosion risk.
- Preferably the place is well ventilated.
- First test the equipment yourself before providing it to an unconscious victim. This prevents you from putting a non-functioning mask on a victim that can't speak.
- Keep oxygen equipment oxygen clean. This means free of grease and other contaminations. Also, open valves slowly and don't bang the equipment around. These are all ways to reduce explosion risk.
Oxygen can possibly be found at- Dive centers
- Hospitals
- Welding shops
- Elderly facilities
- Fish farms
Of course medical oxygen is preferred but if not available any other kind of oxygen can also get used.
When using a flow meter, set it to 20 l/min and see if that is enough.
Improvised Oxygen use
If there is no proper regulator that fits the oxygen tank, a person could breathe oxygen directly from a free flowing tank, or via a snorkel or garden hose. This should be done carefully. If done incorrectly, a person could injure themself. First establish an appropriate free-flow before breathing from the source.
