“Divers Alert Network (DAN), associated with the Duke University Health System in Durham, N.C., has launched a separate dedicated 24-hour diving emergency hotline to serve Latin American divers.
DAN America — in conjunction with the other four DAN public service dive safety organizations DAN Europe, DAN Japan, DAN Southern Africa and DAN South-East Asia Pacific — operates a global network of dive safety and medical assistance services linking the world’s hyperbaric chambers and diving physicians to provide 24-hour, seven-day-a-week expert consultation on the treatment and prevention of diving injuries. All DAN organizations are non-profit, charitable institutions dedicated to helping injured divers and improving safety through their emergency services, research and education programs.
In an ongoing effort to improve safety, DAN America has organized hyperbaric chambers and diving physicians throughout Central and South America into a 24-hour dive emergency network similar to the DAN referral networks in the United States, Europe and elsewhere. The new DAN hotline network divides Latin America into five regions, each coordinated by an experienced diving physician and his colleagues. The five medical directors are:
E. Cuauht?moc S??nchez, M.D., Area 1: M?xico and the Caribbean
Otto Rodr?guez, M.D., Area 2: Central America
Reni? Guilliod, M.D., Area 3: Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, the Guyanas, Peru
Eduardo Vinhaes, M.D., Area 4: Brazil
Gustavo Mauvec?n, M.D., Area 5: Bolivia, Paraguay, Chile, Uruguay, Argentina
The 24-hour diving emergency telephone number, +1-267-520-1507, is answered at DAN’s contracted TravelAssist assistance provider, International SOS, in Philadelphia, Pa., in the United States, and, like the regular DAN emergency numbers, accepts collect calls from most areas. A toll call, however, may be made from anywhere. For the first time ever, Latin American divers need to know and carry only one diving assistance telephone number wherever they dive and travel worldwide.
“”The U.S. location was chosen because of the relative ease of calling to the United States from most countries
