Diver Casualty Of The Bends

[Andy the Coastie]

A SCUBA DIVER was airlifted to hospital after suffering the bends while diving off Eastbourne.
The alarm was raised by the crew aboard a charter vessel on Sunday morning after the man returned to the surface.
Volunteers from the Eastbourne all-weather RNLI lifeboat went to the aid of the man, believed to be in his 40s.
The diver, from Hastings, had surfaced too quickly after failing to stop at 17 metres.
He had been diving at 37 metres near to the Royal Sovereign Light Tower. He tried to return to the surface but failed to stop because his mask became filled with water.
It is believed that the diver, who is considered to be experienced, panicked and failed to stop to decompress at the halfway stage.
This left him in considerable pain once on the surface.
The bends is a serious medical condition which effects divers who surface too quickly.
Members of the boat's crew, a diving club which launches out of Sovereign Harbour, rushed to help the man.
They called for all other members of the dive party to return to the boat and set off towards Sovereign Harbour.
The dive vessel was met halfway by the Eastbourne all-weather lifeboat, the Royal Thames.
A lifeboat spokesman said, ''Once we reached the casualty vessel, we transferred the lifeboat's paramedic on to the boat to asses the situation.


Source Eastbourne News
''The man was given oxygen and first aid but it was felt that the man needed to be taken to hospital as quickly as possible.''
After arriving back at the harbour, Sussex Ambulance paramedics were on hand to administer medical treatment and then transferred the man to the helipad at the DGH were a helicopter was waiting.
It took him to a specialist decompression unit at Whipps Cross hospital in North London.
A spokesman for the hospital described the man's condition as 'stable'. ©
30 May 2006