The police reported that on 18 June, a 65-year-old man from Barnstaple was recovered unconscious from the sea near Stennack Rock, off Lamorna. Diving in the company of two others, he had been 'engaged in an assessment dive to qualify as a diver'.
According to the Coastguard, the unconscious diver was recovered aboard the dive boat Neptune and given CPR plus oxygen, during which advice was received from a doctor over the radio.
Sea conditions had been good with a 10-knot breeze, 0.5m swell and good visibility.
The unconscious diver was airlifted by the RNAS Culdrose helicopter to the Diving Diseases Research Centre chamber at Plymouth, where he was confirmed to have died.
The Coastguard added that, over the weekend of 17/18 June, it was involved in three other diving incidents in the area, involving suspected decompression illness.
It was not clear whether any of the incidents were linked with the large number of divers attending the Penzance-based Kernow Dive Festival.
According to a Coastguard press officer, one incident involved 'tingling in the fingers and pain in an elbow', another 'pain in an arm', and the third 'shock and a headache'.
The Coastguard could not confirm what if any treatments were administered after return ashore, or what the divers' subsequent conditions might be. |
