Posted by on September 20, 2004 at 11:01:20:
Members of the Pacific Grove Ocean Rescue squad used a pressurized chamber to treat a diver suffering from severe decompression sickness over the weekend, firefighters reported Sunday.
A 31-year-old Pacific Grove man had just completed a deep water scuba dive off Monastery Beach when he noticed symptoms of the sickness, caused by surfacing too rapidly after spending time under water. Dive partners took him to the hyperbaric chamber, in the Pacific Grove fire station.
After taking the man by ambulance to the Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula for a mandatory medical examination, the man was returned to the fire station to undergo treatment. After seven hours in the chamber, the man was taken again to the hospital, where he continued to improve.