The Bends Can Kill

The Bends can Kill

Scuba Diving is fun and adventurous, According to Stephen Harrigan (2011):

Scuba Diving from the beginning, had an air of dangerous allure. Every landlocked schoolboy knew of its intriguing hazards: the bends, which caused a diver's veins to fizz with carbonated blood untill he died a ghastly, percolating death; and rapture of the deep, which took away his reason, filled his heart with false contentment, and drew him down into the ocean gloom.

Desending below sea level causes the pressure under water to doubles every 33 ft. When a person is deep under the water, breathing under pressure causes the body to absorb nitrogen into the body. When surfacing too fast, the excess nitrogen forms gas bubbles into the blood stream. For example, this coke is carbonated. When pressure is released, the dissolved gas comes out of the coke forming gas bubbles. The nitrogen gas bubbles trigger the bends and can result to unconsciousness and death. The best way to prevent the bends (decompression sickness) is to know the causes and effects of surfacing out of deep water too fast.

Deep Water contains high pressure that causes the body to absorb too much Nitrogen. As a person descends into deep water, breathing under pressure causes the body to absorb more nitrogen. The longer the diver stays at a specific depth, more nitrogen is dissolved into the body. Once the body cannot utilize the nitrogen it goes into the body tissues. When surfacing, the nitrogen due to different pressure wants to leave the body. A diver surfacing faster than nitrogen leaving the body causes the excess nitrogen to form gas bubbles. The gas bubbles enter the blood triggering the bends. A soda works in a similar way. The carbonated soda has gases that can’t be seen in the bottle. When the bottle is opened, the pressure releases and gas bubbles rise to the...