scubahana

As a scuba instructor I can give you an insight to why you can't dive again. When you dive and breathe under pressure your lungs have to work harder as it is breathing gas at the same ambient pressure. Nutshell example: every 10m of seawater is another atmosphere of pressure. 0m (surface) is 1 atm, 10m/2atm, 20m/3atm etc. If you have had a previous pneumothorax it has been shown that you are more likely to redamage your lung and the area that was previously injured is more fragile and likely to reinjure itself.

The big overexpansion injuries we teach about are pneumothorax (air between your chest wall and lung), mediastinal emphysema (air trapped in the centre of your chest and lungs, putting pressure on the heart and arteries), subcutaneous emphysema (commonest symptoms being bubbles forming under the skin, usually around the neck) and arterial gas embolism (gas bubbles in the blood stream, which can cause paralysis, hypoxia of the limbs/organs and stroke).

As mentioned, your injury increases the risk of it reoccurring so unfortunately diving is no longer a sport for you.

Thank you immensely for this; I would eventually like to get into a Masters and PhD program where I know I will have greater opportunities but knowing the recommended basis for it is good.

Dr. Ballard (half) jokingly said that unless I knew how to work ROVs I would be useless on his team so having a confirmation of this is also quite useful :).

I have been obsessed with the deep ocean ever since I learned about Dr. Ballard discovering the hydrothermal vents back in the '70s.

I have taken some oceanography courses and would like to eventually get a degree in marine science and get out in the deep ocean to do some primary research (I think the biological and chemical relations that make the deep sea ecosystem possible are of particular interest) and would like to know if there are any programs or courses I should consider over and above the 'standard' elective courses that would cover my education and specialisation?

Thanks for helping to unmask the final frontier!