Second diver airlifted to hospital in month – Kent Online

A diver has been taken to hospital in a serious condition after being forced to make an emergency ascent.

Ambulances were called to St Andrew's Lakes in Halling, near Rochester, yesterday afternoon when his equipment failed.

The diver was airlifted to hospital in "a potentially serious condition", the ambulance service said.

Paramedics and the air ambulance were called to the lakes at about 1.30pm to reports the diver needed medical attention.

The man is expected to make a full recovery after he was taken to hospital for decompression treatment.

A spokesman for St Andrews Lakes said: "A diver had an equipment malfunction of his own equipment and made an emergency ascent.

"Standard emergency procedures were followed by the dive school and as a sensible precaution the paramedics who attended decided he needed to attend a decompression chamber and he was taken by helicopter where he is making a full recovery."

He was taken to hospital in London.

It is the second incident in a month at the lakeside attraction which saw another diver taken to a specialist unit at St Richard's Hospital in Chichester in West Sussex.

One of its specialisms is a hyperbaric medicine unit which provides a 24-hour on-call service for treatment of decompression illness.

The diver made a full recovery.

A spokesman for St Andrew's Lakes added: "Medway Council have not made any health and safety investigation whatsoever into any diving at the lake and the HSE who would be the relevant body to do so with a dive operator have not also.

"The previous incident involved a diver who had failed to disclose an underlying health and problem to his London dive school and required emergency assistance.

"Diving can be a dangerous sport and accidents will sadly occasionally occur from time to time."

On its website, St Andrew's Lakes says it is the newest inland freshwater scuba diving site in the UK. The water stretches for 70 acres and goes as deep as 30m.

The venue is used by thousands of divers and used for training throughout the year by the Metropolitan Police and Royal Engineers.

It is set to become a registered five star PADI (Professional Association of Diving Instructors) site on October 1 and will be led by dive school Southern Diving.

Read more: All the latest news from Medway

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Second diver airlifted to hospital in month - Kent Online