Dubai Police's decompression chamber helped treat amateur divers who fall ill.

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

The Dubai Police treated 26 scuba divers suffering from decompression sickness known as ‘the bends’ by placing divers inside a decompression chamber located at the Dubai Police Health Centre.

According to Major Ismail Hasan Mahmoud, Director of Oxygenating Treatment at the General Department of Transport and Rescue, the Dubai Police decompression chamber has helped treat amateur divers who fall ill after not decompressing properly from deep ocean diving.

 Dubai Police urge divers to call 999 in cases of emergency.

“We’ve treated divers and helped them walk again after they were paralyzed. This is usually a result of not following safety procedures after spending many hours underwater or rising quickly from underwater,” Major Mahmoud explained.

Ocean divers get the bends — which can be fatal — because of not stopping at a series of intervals while resurfacing from water to help the body expel nitrogen build-up in the bloodstream. Decompression sickness describes a condition arising from dissolved gases coming out of solution into bubbles inside the body on depressurisation.

Dubai Police urge divers to call 999 in cases of emergency or call 04- 4166666 during business hours should they need require the services of the decompression chamber.