According to this article on the Sunshine Coast Daily newspaper, a rebreather diver got into trouble following a dive on the wreck of the ex-HMAS Brisbane, lying off Mooloolaba on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast.

According to the report, the diver indicated he was having a problem during the ascent, and started to convulse.  Dive crew brought him to the surface where he was unconscious.  They successfully resuscitated the diver, and he was evacuated by helicopter to Brisbane, where he undertook treatment in a hyperbaric chamber.

Given the circumstances, I would hazard a guess that the diver suffered an oxygen toxicity hit, and then probably surface some form of gas embolism during ascent.  This is purely speculative, of course, but quite likely given the description in the article.

Congratulations should be extended to the crew of the dive operator, Sunreef, for their efforts that quite probably saved this divers life.

Quick thinking saves diver - Sunshine Coast Daily - Apr 26 2007 6:00AM - localnews.

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Posted on Thursday, April 26th, 2007 at 10:51 pm | filed under , , , |RSS 2.0 feed | Respond, or Trackback.