DIVING

2. Dive Injuries
Case number
Case notes
131049122 49-year-old male was scuba diving and when he surfaced he couldn’t move his arm. Diagnosis:
arm paralysis.
130933751 33-year-old male reports air embolism, shortness of breath from scuba diving
130802344 43-year-old male scuba diving at 100 fsw (30 msw) and developed numbness, tingling extremities
with decompression sickness.
130755037 26-year-old female scuba diving and was down to 60 fsw (18 msw); came up too quickly and
developed pain in joints and hand tingling. Decompression sickness.
130450676 54-year-old male went scuba diving down about 75 fsw (23 msw) severe eye pain with
subconjunctival hemorrhage.
131234551 40-year-old male diving 75 fsw (23 msw) and developed dizziness head and nausea when
ascending too rapidly. With decompression sickness now.
130903301 46-year-old female entered water for scuba dive and became short of breath. Worsening as dive
went on to 74 fsw (23 msw). Diagnosis : Immersion Pulmonary Edema.
130523137 42-year-old male was scuba diving and hit face on coral. Laceration face.
130660797 42-year-old female, scuba diving and slipped on a rock and fractured tibia and fibula.
130324221 30-year-old female was in diving class diving to 15 fsw (5 msw) nose started bleeding with ear
pain. Diagnosis: barotrauma.
130546606 55-year-old male twisted ankle walking in sand with dive fins on. Diagnosis: achilles tendon injury,
anklesprain, calcaneus fracture.
131151045 62-year-old male scuba diving and felt funny afterward and had a myocardial infarction.
130912415 59-year-old male chest wall pain while scuba diving.
130710689 44-year-old male was scuba diving and impaled self on fish hook. Diagnosis: foreign body right
hand.
In conclusion, we do not yet know exactly how many emergency department admissions occur each-year as a result of
scuba diving, but in the US it is likely somewhere between one and two thousand cases. This chapter shows the range
of injuries from scuba diving that an emergency department might encounter, ranging from an octopus bite, electrocution,
crush trauma, broken bones and, of course, barotrauma, especially barotrauma to the ears. Future work aims to further
elucidate the burden of scuba injury, including hospital admissions in the US.
Annual Diving Report – 2012-2015 Edition
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