Scuba Diving with a Medical Condition

BrianMac21

Hey Scuba Forum,

My girlfriend and I wanted to start Scuba Diving. We both joined a course and did the first lesson of a 6 week course. In the first lesson, we had to fill in a form including any medical condition we had.

She unfortunately has a medical condition, that prevents her from Scuba Diving altogether. Therefore, she is not allowed to continue the course, which also meant I wouldn't continue without her (we both wanted to do an activity together).

The instructor of the course is a really nice guy and was upset over her not being able to continue and told us to send back the scuba book and pack that we received. He asked us if we paid anything yet and we told him we didn't which he was quiet happy with since we weren't losing out.

The issue I'm having is that the company who we began the course with has told me that they are charging us around €200 for 1 lesson and the book since we wrote in it. We were told to write in the book by our instructor and we were not aware that she could not scuba with her medical condition.

Does this sound right to ye? Should we have to pay this money? I honestly don't think we should since we were not aware of the issue and that the company shouldn't of let her begin the course without checking the form first.

Can ye please give me some advice here on what you guys think I should do? Thanks.

locum-motion

A. Was it a PADI course, or something else?
B. Had you done anything like a try-dive/Discover Scuba Diving session/swimming-pool-dive before hand?
C. Did you fill in the medical form before such a session, if there was one?
D. Is the medical condition (and I don't want to know what it is) an absolute no no for SCUBA, or is it just one that requires the go-ahead from a doctor? (If the latter, make sure that the doctor you go to to get signed off is one that is familiar with diving medicine)
E. FYP: "...the company shouldn't have let her..."

BrianMac21

locum-motion wrote: »

A. Was it a PADI course, or something else?
B. Had you done anything like a try-dive/Discover Scuba Diving session/swimming-pool-dive before hand?
C. Did you fill in the medical form before such a session, if there was one?
D. Is the medical condition (and I don't want to know what it is) an absolute no no for SCUBA, or is it just one that requires the go-ahead from a doctor? (If the latter, make sure that the doctor you go to to get signed off is one that is familiar with diving medicine)
E. FYP: "...the company shouldn't have let her..."

Thanks for replying.

A. It was a PADI course; the open water course
B. Nope, not really. I did one in college but nothing before with this company and we told them we had no experience because being honest; we didn't.
C. We filled in the medical form at the first lesson before we got into the pool to start the actual scuba dive training.
D. The medical condition does not allow her to scuba dive full stop. I even tried pushing and they contacted PADI who said no too.

Sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes. I'm just typing quickly and not really revising. I'll try be a bit better because it's probably a pain to read otherwise.

locum-motion

BrianMac21 wrote: »

Thanks for replying.

A. It was a PADI course; the open water course
B. Nope, not really. I did one in college but nothing before with this company and we told them we had no experience because being honest; we didn't.
C. We filled in the medical form at the first lesson before we got into the pool to start the actual scuba dive training.
D. The medical condition does not allow her to scuba dive full stop. I even tried pushing and they contacted PADI who said no too.

Sorry for any grammar or spelling mistakes. I'm just typing quickly and not really revising. I'll try be a bit better because it's probably a pain to read otherwise.

I've a bit of experience with PADI, so:
A. The dive centre will have had to buy the 'crew pack' from PADI, and they ARE expensive.
B. More often than not, PADI centres want people to do a DSD first. That being said, it's not compulsory. If your centre had done a DSD with you, then the issue would have been picked up.
C. IIRC, they should have looked at the form before you got into the pool. But not necessarily before giving you the crew pack to allow you to start preparing/studying.
D. Bummer for her. Sorry to hear it!

BrianMac21

locum-motion wrote: »

I've a bit of experience with PADI, so:
A. The dive centre will have had to buy the 'crew pack' from PADI, and they ARE expensive.
B. More often than not, PADI centres want people to do a DSD first. That being said, it's not compulsory. If your centre had done a DSD with you, then the issue would have been picked up.
C. IIRC, they should have looked at the form before you got into the pool. But not necessarily before giving you the crew pack to allow you to start preparing/studying.
D. Bummer for her. Sorry to hear it!

Ye, I don't mind paying for the crew pack and was told by the company that they cost €40 so I wouldn't mind paying the €80 for that

I agree with you, I'd be happy to pay for the pack because that is fair but I think it's unfair of them to charge us for a single lesson even though they cannot really say how much a single lesson should cost. We were happy to continue the course but we were not aware of the condition preventing that.

Do you mind me asking what you would do in my situation?

Thanks again for the replies; I do appreciate it.

locum-motion

BrianMac21 wrote: »

...

Do you mind me asking what you would do in my situation?

...

You're not going to like this answer: :mad:

I'd dump the girlf. and find one that isn't going to stop me diving!!

:eek:

locum-motion

(More serious answer T/F when I've more time)

BrianMac21

locum-motion wrote: »

You're not going to like this answer: :mad:

I'd dump the girlf. and find one that isn't going to stop me diving!!

:eek:

I love this answer. I will dive myself hopefully at some stage.
However, it's a bummer that she can't. She's raging.

Thanks; I'd appreciate that.

Moocifer

Depending what medical condition your girlfriend has you may be able to continue if her doctor will give you a letter stating that it is safe for her to dive with the condition. Its worth seeing if thats an option with the dive centre.

Both myself and Mr Moocifer both have conditions that required this. Both of regularly dive to 20 meters with no problems. He actually has his deep cert so has gone deeper with no issues.

BrianMac21

Moocifer wrote: »

Depending what medical condition your girlfriend has you may be able to continue if her doctor will give you a letter stating that it is safe for her to dive with the condition. Its worth seeing if thats an option with the dive centre.

Both myself and Mr Moocifer both have conditions that required this. Both of regularly dive to 20 meters with no problems. He actually has his deep cert so has gone deeper with no issues.

I hoped the same but unfortunately not. Her medical condition her prevents her from diving period. She'll never be able to complete a PADI course based on PADI's rules at the moment. We tried all other options. The company contacted PADI and so did our instructor but they said 100% no.

Freedive Ireland

Again depends on the condition but some conditions like certain asthmas are a no go on scuba but ok for freediving so check it out. Yes I am biased but at least it might leave open the possibility of enjoying the water together.

Rigor Mortis

when you filled in the form did you give her condition. I'm guessing you did, but all you said is that you filled in the form.

locum-motion

Rigor Mortis wrote: »

when you filled in the form did you give her condition. I'm guessing you did, but all you said is that you filled in the form.

EDIT: Nevermind. I realised after posting that I had misunderstood you.

BrianMac21

@Rigor Mortis: Yep, we gave the medical condition which is how we found out. Sorry for being unclear.

@Freedive Ireland: Nope, she can't do freediving either. It's pretty crap that she cant.

Benny-c

Freedive Ireland wrote: »

Again depends on the condition but some conditions like certain asthmas are a no go on scuba but ok for freediving so check it out. Yes I am biased but at least it might leave open the possibility of enjoying the water together.

Asthma as a contradiction for SCUBA has been relaxed in recent years, consult a GP that has a knowledge of SCUBA (most of them do not!).

CFT can put you in contact with a GP that has this experience.

diving.ie

Freedive Ireland

Cheers Benny wasn't aware of that.