I'm a cardiologist with an interest in diving medicine. That having been said, diabetes is considered a "relative" contraindication to diving because of concerns of low blood surgar while underwater and that diabetes is a risk factor for other problems like coronary artery disease. Also, every case of diabetes is different. Several agencies do allow diabetics to dive with certain restrictions. SSI has a printed policy on their website for diving with diabetes. A friend of mine in Paris has done a great deal of work with diving with diabetics and it can be done safely. It just requires careful monitoring of blood sugar during the diving day.
As far as diving with coronary stents, the recommendation is that a patient with coronary artery disease should be able to achieve 12 mets on a treadmill which is equivalent to going about 10-11 minutes on a standard Bruce treadmill test. The reason for this is to make sure they could tolerate the increased physical demands if seas or currents increased during a dive or if they had to do a long surface swim. As we all know, while diving is usually not very taxing, it can become so in certain circumstances.
Talk with your physician, but know that there are a lot of diabetics and a lot of people with coronary stents who dive. Just have her get checked out first and
make sure it's safe.
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