A scuba diver’s life was saved yesterday in a dramatic rescue off Marina del Rey.
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Deputies were notified about 9 a.m. that a diver aboard the vessel El Dorado was having trouble breathing after surfacing from a recreational dive in Santa Monica Bay.
Deputies aboard a patrol boat from the sheriff’s Marina del Rey Station and a lifeguards from the county fire department’s Baywatch unit responded, authorities said. Transfering the victim, who was by then unconscious, to the sheriff’s patrol boat for CPR.
“After approximately 45 seconds, the diver started breathing on his
own,” according to a sheriff’s department statement.
A U.S. Coast Guard helicopter was summoned to take the victim to
Catalina Island for emergency hyperbaric chamber treatment.
Officials saying that a rescue basket had to be lowered and used to hoist the diver into the MH-65 Dolphin helicopter.
Deputies followed the helicopter to Catalina. By the time they arrived at the island the diver was being treated in the hyperbaric chamber and was conscious and talking
“The diver has since been transferred to a mainland hospital for
further observation,” according to the sheriff’s department.
