Dubai Police treat 26 scuba divers suffering from decompression sickness

Dubai: Dubai Police have treated 26 scuba divers suffering from decompression sickness, also known as ‘the bends’, by placing the divers inside a decompression chamber located at the Dubai Police Health Centre.

Major Ismail Hasan Mahmoud, Director of Oxygenating Treatment at the General Department of Transport and Rescue, said the Dubai Police decompression chamber has helped treat amateur divers who fall ill after not decompressing properly from deep-ocean diving. It is understood the treatments have taken place over a period of time in separate cases.

“We’ve treated divers and helped them walk again after they were paralysed. This is usually a result of not following safety procedures after spending many hours underwater or rising quickly from underwater,” Maj Mahmoud added.

Ocean divers get ‘the bends’ — which can be fatal — because of not stopping at a series of intervals while resurfacing from water to help the body expel nitrogen build-up in the bloodstream. Decompression sickness describes a condition arising from dissolved gases coming out of a solution into bubbles inside the body on depressurisation.

Dubai Police have urged divers to call 999 in case of emergency or call 04- 4166666 during business hours should they need the services of the decompression chamber.