The Diver Emergency Service (DES) is a 24 hour, 7 days a week hotline for advice and treatment of all diving related incidents, accidents or injuries, including the emergency management of decompression illness.
On VHF Radio, contact Coast Guard on Channel – 16 VHF.
For other emergency services, phone 111.
Just need a routine medical exam? Click here for a list of designated diving doctors.
DECOMPRESSION ILLNESS.
Decompression Illness (DCI) can present as a wide variety of symptoms. If there is any suspicion of DCI for yourself or a member of your diving party follow these steps without delay.
- Call the Diver Emergency Number 0800 4 DES 111 (0800 4337 111)
- Initiate treatment as soon as possible
- Conduct the standard ABCs procedure - Airway, Breathing, Circulation
- Keep unnecessary movement to a minimum. The patient should remain lying flat
- Administer high flow Oxygen via mask (as close to 100% O2 as possible)
- Obtain a Dive History – following information is required:
- Depth
- Duration
- Surface Intervals
- Number of Dives
- Any significant events during the dive such as equipment failures, uncontrolled ascents, multiple ascents
- Diving at altitude (lake diving)?
- Altitude ascent post diving
- Past history of DCI
- The experience of the diver
- Evacuate to the Auckland’s Navy Hospital Hyperbaric Unit or Christchurch Hospital Hyperbaric Medicine Unit if required by:
- Pressurised Fix Wing (300m Cabin Pressure) aircraft
- Helicopter
- Road (below 1000 ft altitude)
Treatment in-transit - if qualified
- Insert IV line – 1000 mLs Normal Saline q4h.
- Monitor urine output. An indwelling catheter may be required if spinal DCI is suspected.
DAN - DIVER'S ALERT NETWORK.
DAN is a global network of not-for-profit, member-based organisations. DAN Asia-Pacific has a region of responsibility that extends throughout Asia and the Pacific region.
To scuba divers worldwide, DAN means safety, health and peace of mind. Wherever members live or dive around the world they have peace of mind knowing that DAN is available 24-hours a day, 7 days a week to assist in the event of an accident.
In addition, DAN strives to improve the safety of diving, via activities that include:
- Providing Worldwide Emergency Evacuation Coverage for Members.
- Providing optional Dive Injury Insurance Services for Members.
- Funding and/or manning 24-hour diving emergency hotlines throughout the region.
- Offering non-emergency diving medical advice, accident management training, and undertaking data collection and research to enhance dive safety.
So, if you are a diver who enjoys exploring the amazing dive sites at home and throughout the world, become a Member and let DAN, the experts in diver accident management, take care of the unexpected.
This way you can focus on what’s most important enjoying your diving! Become a DAN Member and join more than 300,000 divers worldwide who support dive safety through DAN.
Useful links:
MEDICAL LIBRARY FOR DIVERS.
click on a topic link below to open a PDF document on each subject
- Scuba diving explained
- Diving and shallow water blackout
- Epilepsy and diving
- Asthma and diving
- High blood pressure (hypertension) and diving
- Coronary artery disease and diving
- Flying after diving
- Women and diving
- Are women more susceptible to decompression illness (DCI)?
- Pregnancy, breastfeeding and diving
- Menstruation and diving
INCIDENT REPORTING FORM.
Report an incident
If you witnessed or were involved in a diving incident, please complete as much as you can of the NZUA Incident Report Form below.
All incident information submitted to NZUA will be treated with absolute confidentiality.
New Zealand Underwater collects, analyses and reports on diving incidents and accidents in New Zealand. The information is used to monitor trends, identify common factors and improve diver safety through education.
All information received by NZU is strictly confidential. No individual names, contact details or information that would lead to a person being identified will appear in any report or publication.
Incident report form data is also sent to the Divers Alert Network, Asia Pacific, to assist them in the mission to improve diver safety for the entire region.
For the purpose of maintaining as complete and accurate records as possible, information on diver incidents collected by NZU will be shared with Water Safety New Zealand
