Alert Diver Category: Incident Insights

Symptoms do not always point to just one definite cause, so it is often just as important to continue listening to the patient and exploring options that might not be immediately apparent.

A scientific diver, participating in training exercises with her team, became overheated and called off the dive. Read more about the incident, diagnosis, treatment and more.

Relief from symptoms doesn’t always mean a cure. Read one incident of when a diver presented with a rash and received treatment for decompression sickness — but became very combative.

I am a 55-year-old avid diver who made about 300 dives in 2023, most of which were coldwater shore-entry dives near San Diego, California, to below 100 feet (30 meters). I am also a dive instructor who loves to take underwater photos and participate in citizen science by completing a survey for the Reef Environmental Education Foundation (REEF) after every dive. My dive buddies know me as a safe and conservative diver.

Contrary to what you might expect, air will escape from a low-pressure hose faster than from a high-pressure hose because of the low-pressure hose’s wider opening.

A diver had odd sensations in her hand but she wasn’t too concerned…until complications arose. Read more about this diver’s story.

Emergency oxygen is only the first step to treating suspected cases of decompression illness. Read more about this serious diving incident.

Few people were diving in the freezing ocean around St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, in the winter of 1986. I still had my Poseidon Unisuit, which I had used for several years of commercial diving in British Columbia in the late 1970s. I had not been in the water for several years but wanted to get started again.

When diving offshore, always carry emergency signaling devices such as a surface marker buoy, signal mirror and emergency strobe.

Dengue fever is a mosquito-born infection and infection rates are rising in certain parts of the world. A diver unfortunately contracted dengue fever while on a trip.