Hi 2red,
I have has the "pleasure" of being treated in a recompression chamber. So I have some experience to draw some conclusions from.
I'm sure you are taught to try to recompress as quickly as possible but putting someone into the chamber isn't like putting bread in a toaster. You don't just pop a patient in. Some chambers are large enough for an attendant as well and they have to be available. Everything has to be in place before treatment begins. An hour isn't very long...except to the patient in pain.
Actually, one hour from the time the ER physician sees the diver till the diver is in recompression is actually fairly fast. I'm assuming the diver was conscious, alert with a chief complaint of the painful knees.
His symptoms were consistent with but not limited to a non-neurologic DCS. While in pain, he was not suffering from a condition that was immediately life threatening. Time was available for proper evaluation and pre-treatment protocols.
When I was treated, it easily took an hour of exams, paperwork, contacting DAN, blood work, preparing to enter the chamber etc.
If the chamber was not manned 24/7, staff may have had to been called in. Even if the chamber was immediately available, 1 hour to entry after being admitted to the ER is actually pretty quick.
In some hospitals, the chamber does double duty as a HBOT treatment facility. If there were patients already in the chamber, a delay would have been encountered just clearing the chamber out.
Laurence Stein, DDS