THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, February 9, 1997 TAG: 9702060161
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 12 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DEMPSEY, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: 97 lines
When Andy and Ellyn Meshel say their marriage is all wet, they don't mean it's on the rocks.
They are devoted scuba divers. Diving has been a central theme in their 10 years together, both for pleasure and for business.
Dr. Ellyn Meshel is known to thousands of Outer Bankers as a physician at the Outer Banks Medical Center. In addition to her internal medicine specialty, she has been recently be certified by the Divers Alert Network, affiliated with Duke University, as a diving physician. She is the only physician on the North Carolina coast with such credentials.
Andy Meshel is a computer expert who is writing a book on how to rig small boats for diving. He has recently been re-certified as a dive master by the National Academy of Scuba Educators, which supplements his certifications from the National Association of Underwater Instructors.
Although the Meshels bring serious credentials to the business of diving off the Outer Banks, it started as a hobby for sheer pleasure.
Andy began first and has spent half of his 35 years as a diving enthusiast. When he met Ellyn during her college days on Long Island, he quickly introduced her to the sport. When it came time to pop the question, he wrote his proposal on a slate and presented it to her during a dive. He added, mischievously, ``But I still feel diving can be fun.''
A diving honeymoon off the Florida Keys was followed by eight years in Chicago for Ellyn's medical school and residency. Spare moments were shared diving to shipwrecks in the Great Lakes.
More medical training in Greenville familiarized the Meshels with diving opportunities in the region and they made the Outer Banks their home two years ago. Diving had been one of the few constants over a decade of change.
``It's like getting away,'' she said. ``An entirely different, beautiful world. So quiet.'' After a pause: ``Except when Andy hums off-key underwater.''
Andy, however, is a man with a mission. ``I never dive just to see how deep I can go or to brag about reaching bottom. There's always something specific down there I want to see.'' That's usually a wreck, and he has computer printouts of thousands of sunken ships both in the Great Lakes and off the Banks.
After so many years of pleasurable diving, the Meshels feel they have a better understanding than most of the need for competent diving safety and medical training. Their list of dangers is impressive. Jellyfish, cold water, strong underwater currents, over exertion and malfunctioning equipment are common. Nitrogen narcosis is an insidious malady.
``Think of it as taking a martini every 33 feet you dive,'' Andy said. The resulting impaired judgment during deep dives may lead to foolish mistakes.
Most of all, the Meshels agreed, air in the body under pressure concerns divers the most. During descent, imbalances in air pressure in body cavities separated by thin membranes, such as in the ear and lungs, may result in ruptures.
During ascent, dissolved and compressed air expands.
``Think of what happens when you unscrew the cap of a Coke,'' Andy said. The rapid loss of pressure causes dissolved gas to expand into bubbles, which froth to the top. A comparable experience in the body during a too rapid or uncontrolled ascent may produce body-wide pain. It may result in permanent disability and sometimes death, if untreated.
This problem is commonly called the bends, an excess of bubbles in the body's tissue.
It is treated by placing the diver in a hyperbaric chamber which, in effect, puts the diver through another dive. This time a slower ascent allows the body to adjust to gradually reduced pressure and allows tissue to ``out-gas'' safely.
Specially trained technicians at Duke University's Divers Alert Network keep an active roster of hyperbaric chambers around the world and advise callers on the nearest working, unoccupied one. Bruce Delphia, a former Outer Banks paramedic, is one of DAN's clinicians who still returns to the Outer Banks to dive and to conduct courses.
Delphia said, ``No environment on Earth so drastically alters human physiology as diving. People should spend as much time as possible learning all the things that can go wrong.''
Delphia and Dr. Meshel participated in the same training program at DAN. Although Meshel is a physician and a trained diver, she said the program expanded her skills in identifying and treating diving-related maladies. Additionally, she has an even firmer commitment to personal safety precautions.
Based on her training and experience, she strongly advises new divers to go for a medical check-up before setting foot in the water. At the very least, that includes a medical history and a physical.
Dr. Meshel stressed the importance of getting as much training as possible so that divers understand what's happening to them underwater. She strongly advocates terminating a dive if anything even seems to be going wrong and seeking medical care if there are any unusual symptoms at all.
Dr. Meshel said some of the symptoms that might be experienced by a diver include rashes, pain in joints, fatigue, slurred speech, difficulty breathing, numbness, ringing ears and dizziness.
If those symptoms occur, Dr. Meshel said, don't delay in getting trained help because permanent damage may be happening. ILLUSTRATION: Photo by ELLYN MESHEL
Andy Meshel of Kill Devil Hills hovers near an unexploded torpedo on
the sunken German submarine U-352.