Coast Guard Rescues Trapped Scuba Diver

Marking the second diving accident in Ventura County in a week, a 53-year-old woman scuba diving off Anacapa Island on Friday was rescued by the Coast Guard after she was trapped underwater for 12 minutes, authorities said.

The unidentified woman, a resident of Big Sandy, Tex., was rushed to Los Robles Regional Medical Center in Thousand Oaks, where she was put in a sealed decompression chamber, authorities said.

The Coast Guard and hospital officials said the woman had been diving with a group when she became entangled in kelp.

She was unconscious when the Coast Guard pulled her from the water but had regained consciousness by the time she arrived at the hospital, said Dr. J. B. Wilmeth, director of the Los Robles Dive Chamber.

“She’s nearly drowned,” Wilmeth said. “After all, she was out of oxygen for a while.”

A lack of oxygen damages tissue in the brain, heart and other organs, he said, adding that the near-drowning also produced air bubbles in the woman’s brain.

To squeeze the bubbles down and help repair the damaged tissues, Wilmeth put the woman into the dive chamber, a long, narrow stainless-steel room that simulates underwater conditions.

Wilmeth said he expected that the woman would need to stay in the chamber for about five hours, with pressure conditions simulating those 165 feet below the water’s surface. “I think she’s going to do very well,” he said.

Meanwhile, Ventura County sheriff’s deputies are continuing their helicopter search for a 41-year-old Van Nuys man who was reported lost while scuba diving near Ventura Harbor last Saturday.

Edward Lee Skidmore failed to surface after diving into 30 feet of water, authorities said. He had gone diving with two companions.