Decompression sickness in a 14-year-old diver.

Abstract

A 14-year-old boy was boat diving with three adults on a remote off-shore reef when, on entering the water, he was swept off the reef by the current, losing contact with his dive buddy. He reached the bottom at 63.8 m seawater depth. Unable to inflate his buoyancy compensator or to fin off the bottom, as he was considerably overweighted at this depth, he ditched his weight belt and made a swimming ascent. He was soon unable to control his ascent rate. He rapidly developed neurological and musculo-skeletal symptoms of decompression illness after reaching the surface requiring a complex evacuation to a recompression facility. Following a 30 m helium-oxygen treatment and a week of daily hyperbaric oxygen treatments, he made a complete recovery. This case illustrates the potential disparity between diving training agency guidelines for children and what may happen in actual diving practice. (Davis FM. Decompression sickness in a 14-year-old diver. SPUMS J 2003; 33: 75-76)