Finding Focus in Diving and Surgery

During his first open water dive in college, Dr. Jimmie L. Harper’s regulator malfunctioned just 10 feet below the surface. He inhaled water — and didn’t dive again for 20 years.

“Keeping a level head when things aren’t going exactly as planned is important,” he says. This sentiment applies to both surgery and diving, but when Dr. Harper is out in the deep, all the worries of the world slip away from him.

“It’s very relaxing. You become laser-focused on what you are doing.”

Diving Back In

Despite that harrowing experience when he first dove, Dr. Harper was inspired by a friend to get back into it around 25 years ago, taking a course in St. Martin. During that time, when he was also beginning his OMS career, he would volunteer as a diver to help clean the manatee tanks twice a month at the Cincinnati Zoo. Today, as for most enthusiasts, finding time to dive is not a monthly occurrence, but Dr. Harper plans one or two trips yearly to the ocean.

Often, this has entailed spending a week on board a boat out of Miami to the Bahamas, where he does four to five dives a day along with his son. Dr. Harper has also explored incredible locations, including the Galapagos. “That was one of the most awesome dive trips — there were hundreds and hundreds of six- to eight-foot hammerhead sharks swimming by.”

Divers must monitor their oxygen supply and nitrogen levels closely. The deeper the dive, the faster nitrogen builds up in the body. Today’s dive computers help calculate safe limits and prevent conditions like “the bends.”

How Diving Can Help an OMS

The practice and precision required of a diver certainly align with OMS practice. Dr. Harper notes that both bring him into “the zone,” where the world fades away. This is key in diving: you have to pay close attention to what you are doing and to your dials; otherwise, you might “get bent” (because of too much nitrogen) or run out of oxygen. In surgery, you have to get what you are doing done despite the pressures of upcoming appointments and staff needs pouring in around you. As surgery requires such dedicated focus, Dr. Harper believes most OMS professionals would do well in diving, also because of the inherent risks present in both.

Being good at diving also aligns with patient care — when diving, you may be partnered with a complete stranger and responsible for them. Dr. Harper once went down with a diver who did not check anything before getting in the water; he ran out of air halfway through the dive. Dr. Harper had to help bring him onto the boat.

Dr. Harper with his son.

And just like in surgery, you must know your limits. Once, Dr. Harper ended a dive early — he was in Vancouver seeking the giant Pacific octopus — due to running out of oxygen more quickly than expected. He trusted his gauges and decided it was not smart to go down, and so, made the decision to back out.

Be Passionate and Excellant 

For other surgeons and especially residents figuring out how to dedicate time to their passions outside OMS, Dr. Harper notes it’s important that one of their passions be oral and maxillofacial surgery, as it’s something every resident is immersed in. “The goal is to be excellent, and to develop excellence in your practice.”

Still, he acknowledged a need for distractions. In addition to diving, Dr. Harper loves gardening, a far less intense pursuit, but one that similarly allows him to focus on a single task and let the worries of work fade away. “It’s a kind of therapy,” he says.