GoFundMe Fundraiser Supports Research for Dangerous Diving Practices

For more than 20 years, Dr. Elmer Mejía of Honduras risked his life to treat the Miskito divers who live on the east coast of Honduras and Nicaragua. They suffered injuries using scuba equipment to hunt for lobster – all to feed American and European markets.

Throughout that period, Dr. Mejía treated thousands of cases of Miskito people with severe decompression illness including exceptional paralysis and incontinence. Often, the divers were carried into his clinic in Puerto Lempira, Honduras and were able to walk out under their own power several days later. Most had residual symptoms but were not paralyzed.

His treatment protocols fly in the face of conventional wisdom treating decompression illness, often beginning days after the injury with tremendous success. His success in many of these cases is nothing short of miraculous. He has patient records, case histories and in many cases follow up examinations on each of these divers.

##READ MORE ABOUT THE MISKITO DIVERS

Dr. Mejía is working with two nonprofit organizations to compile his patient records in a way that his work can be analyzed and used for extensive research. His patient records were written by hand using paper and pencil and have to be entered into a computer for analysis. Dr. Mejía is working with the American 501(c)(3) organization called the Chronic Disease Registry and the Diving Diseases Research Centre in Plymouth, England.

Donations will go to the nonprofit Chronic Disease Registry and they will distribute funds to the DDRC in England as they prepare the database and analyze the data for future publication. They will also distribute some of the funds to Dr. Mejía to support him while he does the painstaking work of translating and recording the data.

The results of this research will revolutionize the care for all injured divers and others who need hyperbaric treatment for wound care.

Donations to this fundraiser will make the lives of all divers safer by improving the care they receive after an injury while helping to improve the lives of the Miskito people who have long been exploited for their ability to dive and their lack of other choices to support their families.

Check out the GoFundMe Fundraiser here.

Diving writer Eric Douglas has worked with Dr. Mejia for many years and written extensively about his work and the plight of the Miskito divers. You can find more on his website.