ROUND THE BENDS

Rescued diver flown 200km due to lack of staff

A DIVER suffering from the bends had to be flown to the North as there was no staff to operate a special decompression facility here, it emerged yesterday.

University Hospital Galway confirmed its hyperbaric chamber was not available because there were no volunteers available to run it.

The diver got into difficulty on May 8 and was showing symptoms of decompression sickness after completing a dive in the Union Hall area of Cork.

He had to be flown more than 200km to a hospital in Craigavon, Co Armagh, for treatment. A University Hospital Galway spokesman said: “The hyperbaric service is provided by staff who volunteer and are rostered depending on availability.

“Unfortunately, it was not possible to facilitate treatment on Tuesday 8th May as no volunteers were available in the timeframe required.” The Shannon-based Irish Coast Guard helicopter was requested to airlift the diver to hospital.

However, the crew had to land at Shannon Airport first to refuel before continuing to over the border. They also had to fly no higher than 500ft, because of the patient’s condition, meaning it had to take a circuitous route to Craigavon that allowed them to avoid all areas of high ground.

An Irish Coast Guard spokesman said: “There is one recompression chamber in the Republic of Ireland on an ‘as available’ basis. Alternatives are in the UK if Galway is unavailable.”