A FREAK incident during a routine underwater dive in Kerry on Friday resulted in two people being airlifted to a special medical decompression facility in Galway.
The divers were in a party of four that embarked on a guided adventure at the Seven Hogs in the Maharees but when they returned to the boat one began to feel unwell.
The man, in his 30s, complained of stomach pain and felt he was losing the use of his left leg so quick-thinking instructor, Ronnie Fitzgibbon, of Waterworld Watersports, immediately summoned the emergency services.
The Valentia Coastguard was alerted and, in the meantime, the man had been given oxygen and brought back to the pier where he quickly regained full feeling in his leg.
Both the casualty and dive partner instructor Ronnie were flown to the state-of-the art facility at Galway University Hospital where they were lowered down 18.6m in a decompression chamber for six hours in a process known as a “dry drive”.
Ronnie, who was assessed only as a precaution, returned home to Kerry and his dive partner was released today after the decompression process was repeated.
The man who felt unwell suffered what is known as “the bends” and, according to Ronnie, it is believed to have been due to a pre-existing medical condition.
“We’re in this business for 31 years and I’ve never seen anything like this before. It was a great dive but it was just one of those days and it had a happy ending,” he told KillarneyToday.com.
Ronnie said staff at the hospital were amazed at the speed of the transfer from the Maharees to Galway.
“We were out of the water at 10:54am and we were landed on the helipad in Galway at 12:12pm. It is a fantastic, state-of-the-art facility with the brilliant medical staff assisted by volunteers from the Galway Sub Aqua Club,” he said.
* Photographs courtesy of Ronnie Fitzgibbon. Click on individual images to enlarge or for information
