Diver suffering from ‘the bends’ rescued off Swanage coast

11:00am Tuesday 26th April 2011

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A STRICKEN diver suffering from ‘the bends’ was dramatically rescued by helicopter off the Swanage coast.

the male diver was hauled into the hovering coastguard chopper from the deck of the dive boat Skua.

Witnesses said a winchman was lowered about 50ft onto the boat around 3.30pm on Easter Sunday.

A coastguard spokesman said the man had been diving on the wreck of the Kyarra, south of Anvil Point.

he was airlifted to the emergency landing site at Poole, where a specialist dive doctor and an ambulance was standing by to rush him to the recompression chamber at Poole Hospital.

As the Daily Echo went to press the man’s condition was not known, but it is not thought to be life-threatening.

Eyewitness Steve Barrett said: “We were travelling in our RIB from Lulworth to Poole when we saw the helicopter approach the Skua to airlift both the coastguard winchman and the diver.”

an hour before this incident the coastguard helicopter was tasked to transport another diver, who was also displaying symptoms of decompression sickness, from Weymouth Bay.

he was also taken to the recompression chamber at Poole Hospital.

the wreck of the SS Kyarra was discovered in the late 1960s and is now one of the best known dive wrecks on the south coast.

it is not unusual to have up to 100 divers on the wreck on any summer weekend.

the vessel, an Australian steamer used as a casualty clearing ship in the great War, was sunk by a German U-Boat torpedo in 1918.

• AN extensive search operation continued yesterday to recover the body of a missing diver.

the experienced recreational diver, a 61-year-old man from the Bristol area, got into difficulties as he was ascending to the surface following a 22-metre dive at Lyme Bay five days ago.

despite the best efforts of his dive buddy, he failed to surface.