On our first morning in Santorini, we had a great breakfast at our hotel and then the four of us waited outside of the hotel at 10 a.m. (midnight back home) for the van from Santorini Dive Center to pick us up to go diving.  They drove the four of us to the dive center which was down the cliff to a very secluded beach.  The water was kind of rough and so Barb decided she did not want to snorkel and Lynda decided she did not want to dive.  That left Doug and me to go out on two different dives planned for the day.

While Lynda and Barb stayed on the beach Doug and I geared up with the rented dive gear.  There were twelve divers on the boat and it took about a half an hour by boat to reach to dive spot.  The first dive was good, Doug and I went down to about 65 feet and saw a ship that had sunk over 40 years ago which was pretty cool.  We surfaced and swam back to the dive boat.  When everyone was onboard, we made the 30-minute return boat trip to the beach where we’d left our ladies.  After hanging out on shore for about an hour, the divers geared up and walked out with our scuba gear into the water to make our last dive from shore.  Once out away from the surf, we slowly descended into the deep.

Let me state right here that what I tell you from here on out is from Lynda’s and my perspective.  I’m sure that Doug will have his own take on this and it can certainly be different from ours.  Around 50 feet deep Doug started noticing a problem, he was having a difficult time catching his breath, feeling like he wasn’t getting enough oxygen.  He was trying to relax and we went down to about 70 feet deep.  He checked his tank level and saw that he had used up a lot of air already.  He notified the dive masters who also saw that Doug was using way too much air too quickly.  He had gone through 2/3 of his air tank in only 15 minutes.  They knew there was a problem.  The dive master started taking Doug to the surface, but since we were down so far, they had to do a safety stop at about 15-20 feet for around 3+ minutes to allow the residual nitrogen that builds up in your body from the deep dive, to dissipate. By the time Doug got to the surface, Lynda who stayed on shore, saw them surface and that Doug was being dragged toward shore by the dive master.  She went down to the shore to help out.  This was a very remote beach.  I stayed down with the rest of the divers and two other dive masters and didn’t know what was up until I surfaced about 20-25 minutes later.  Lynda said Doug was grayish when she saw him and his lips and hands were blue.  He was not responsive and couldn’t or wouldn’t talk.  She kneeled down in the water so Doug could rest his back against her after the dive master took off his tank and regulator.  Then the dive master and another guy got him up out of the surf and walked him to shore to a chair and sat him down.  They had a pure oxygen bottle that they hooked up to a device and had him breathe through that.  He was just sitting there in that position when I surfaced and came on shore 25 minutes later.

By that time Doug was talking and his color had improved.  An ambulance was called and they got there relatively quickly.  They loaded Doug up in the ambulance, Barb and Dimitri, the dive master got on board the ambulance and it took off up the hill on the only road out of there, a very steep and narrow dirt road.  About 2/3 of the way up this road, the left (steep cliff) side tires of the ambulance caught in the sand and it plowed to the left, tipping towards the cliff edge.  It was now stuck and could go no further.  About 12 guys tried to push the ambulance with a small pick up trying to tow it to get out of there without success.  Before they attempted this, they got Doug out of the ambulance and he had to walk up this steep road on his own to the dive center van and then Doug, Barb and Dimitri took off for the hospital with the Dimitri driving.  The doctor at the hospital did an EKG which was sort of okay.  Doug’s oxygen sat levels were low despite being on oxygen for the past 3 hours.  The hospital doctor wanted him to see a cardiologist, but Doug refused.  The doctor then did another EKG which was more concerning and at that point, Barb told Doug to be quiet that she was calling the shots now and that they were going to the cardiologist.  By this time, they were joined by Paul, the owner of the dive company and they drove Doug and Barb wherever they needed to go.  Doug spent about 3 hours at the cardiologist who did ultrasound tests and some lab work.

The cardiac tests and the ultrasound they did showed that Doug had had a “cardiac event”.  He has fluid on his lungs now as a result and he is spending the night in the hospital here in Santorini.  They’ve got him on a Lasix type medication plus a blood thinner type heart medication to get the fluid out of him.

This hospital here in Santorini makes the Seattle Greyhound bus station look like the Mayo Clinic.  Seriously!!  The cardiologist here wants him to fly to Athens to undergo testing to see if there is a heart blockage but Barb has been trying to get an answer which she hasn’t been able to so far about just flying him home and have the testing done there.  I don’t think I want a Greek doctor doing an angioplasty where they stick a needle up into his heart to test for a blockage and Doug said he certainly didn’t want that.  Around 9:30 last night Barb came back with us to the hotel to get out of her swimming suit and to eat and get some clothes for the two of them as she was going back to the hospital to spend the night with Doug.  We ordered some takeout food for her to take back to Doug as he had not eaten all day and the hospital doesn’t have food.  It’s been a very long day and we are so thankful that our superman is still with us.  On reflection, the experience of the dive masters in immediately recognizing a problem that far under the surface of the water and taking immediate action to address it probably saved Doug’s life.  The Lord is so good.