Woman injured at Barwon Heads - Australia

[DandyDon]

The original link was changed to Subscription only, so I will replace with a new link and quote.

Diver rushed to hospital after incident off Barwon Heads

A FEMALE diver was rushed to The Alfred for specialist treatment following a diving incident off Barwon Heads.


Paramedics were called to the Barwon Heads pier after reports a woman had sustained serious injuries while diving off a boat, shortly before 11.30am Monday.

An Ambulance Victoria spokesman said the woman, believed to be aged in her 40s, was being taken to The Alfred hospital in a serious condition.


Sergeant Mark Gray later the woman had suffered decompression sickness while diving off a private recreational boat.

“She was 20m down and got to the 10m mark when she’s hit rapid ascent,” he said.

“It appears she’s failed to release the air in her buoyancy vest that’s caused the rapid a ascent.”


The Alfred Hospital has a decompression chamber used to help patients suffering the bends.

 

[clownfishsydney]

What is going on here in Australia? Hopefully she will be okay. If the deaths over the past 6 or 8 weeks was extrapolated to the population of the USA, then there would have been something like 90 deaths from scuba diving!

 

[DandyDon]

What is going on here in Australia?

It's springtime, and maybe Google is giving better news connections to U.S. browsers these days...??

 

[Wingy]

Actually its summer - we had a 37c day on Saturday the amount of boats in the water around rottnest was insane - Free diver was hit by a boat in Thompsons Bay. This summer has begun weird...39 - 37 over the weekend and its now 23 and thunderstorms.
As soon as we get hot days people are heading for the water. Hoping this lady is ok.

 

[DandyDon]

Actually its summer - we had a 37c day on Saturday

I understand, it's warm to hot in much of Australia, while it's chilly to cold in much of the US. I was referencing spring as the season between the equinox and the solstice. Winter officially starts here December 21, and I suppose summer officially starts there the same date?

 

[Wingy]

December 1st here is the official start of summer.

 

[DandyDon]

I had to update the original post as the original link had been made Subscription only.

The new link includes additional info. Excerpting...

“She was 20m down and got to the 10m mark when she’s hit rapid ascent,” he said.

“It appears she’s failed to release the air in her buoyancy vest that’s caused the rapid a ascent.”

The Alfred Hospital has a decompression chamber used to help patients suffering the bends.

 

[Dizzi Lizzi]

Hoping she comes out of this ok.

 

[DandyDon]

She seems to be improving, out of ICU: Vic diver improves after rapid ascent

 

[tridacna]

Hoping she comes out of this ok.

I don't want to sound completely asinine but it's these kind of non-contributory inane comments that make this section worthless.

Pete asked earlier how we could reform A&I. Having mods remove these would go a long way toward that end.