Common Scuba Diving AccidentsScuba Diving Accidents, we never like to dwell on the negative but like all sports, scuba diving carries a certain amount of risk in participation. This sport is somewhat unique in that we’re dealing with a foreign environment that is, quite frankly, hostile to human beings. This one’s sort of the Mickey Mouse of dive injuries. A mask squeeze happens when you forget to let some air into your mask as you descend. The air space in the mask compresses and sucks your face into the space. Usually this phenomenon creates nothing more than a red face (and lots of laughter from your dive buddies). Barotrauma is much more serious than a mask squeeze. It is a pressure related injury and can occur wherever we have air spaces in our body. A typical barotraumas results when the air in your middle ear can’t escape through your Eustachian tubes. Barotrauma can occur when you’re ascending or descending. The pressure in your ears can’t equalize and your eardrum ruptures. Now we’re talking about the big boys. An arterial gas embolism can be fatal. When you’re diving you have to breathe constantly. If you were to hold your breath and ascend, the air in your lungs would expand, potentially rupturing your lungs. This causes small bubbles to enter your bloodstream which can block the supply of blood to your brain. Not good. Decompression sickness or “the bends” is probably the best known of the scuba diving accidents. At increased pressures, your body absorbs more nitrogen than usual. When you ascend, that nitrogen has to go somewhere. If you weren’t underwater for too long and you ascend slowly, this extra nitrogen passes harmlessly from your blood to your lungs and out into the air. However if you violated your maximum dive times and/or ascended too fast, your body might not be able to rid itself of the nitrogen fast enough. When that happens the nitrogen leaves your blood in the form of little bubbles and can cause problems similar to an arterial gas embolism. Decompression sickness will earn you a trip to your local hospital’s decompression chamber where they’ll recompress you until the nitrogen goes back into your bloodstream. Then they’ll slowly decompress you again so your body has time to eliminate the extra nitrogen. Under greater pressures, your body will react differently to the gases it processes every day. For example, nitrogen will have an increasingly narcotic effect as you go deeper. Oxygen too, can become toxic at certain pressures. This is the place you will end up if you have a bad diving accident and it's not the place you want to be! Make sure you plan your dive and dive your plan. Have a look here for more information on decompression chambers. Recompression is the most important treatment for pressure related diving injuries. The recompression has to be in a controlled environment. Do not recompress in the ocean! Ever! Like most sports there is always an element of risk and scuba diving probably has more risk than most. This risk is controllable one you understand the three danger sources. Have a look at them here. There are definitely dangers associate with scuba diving, but the sport is much safer than it was 30 years ago. With proper training you can easily avoid the most common and dangerous scuba dive accidents. These dangers can seem scary, but they’re thankfully rare and can be avoided with a healthy dose of common sense. Return to Underwater Diving Equipment Home Page.
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