‘Bends,’ Drowning Take Life of Scuba Diver Off Island

The body of a 45-year-old Huntington Park man who drowned while scuba diving off the Ventura County coast near Santa Cruz Island will be taken back to his birthplace in Guatemala for burial, a family friend said.

Oscar Urzua was pronounced dead at 2:25 p.m. Sunday, following treatment at Columbia Los Robles Hospital in Thousand Oaks. Deputy Coroner Mitch Breeze said Urzua was the victim of a combination of decompression sickness and drowning.

The diver, who worked as a mechanic for Smart & Final in Huntington Park, came to the United States 16 years ago, said family friend Luis Ortega, 33, of Long Beach.

On Monday, Ortega, his wife, Isabela Trieras, and other friends gathered at the home of Urzua’s son, Oscar, 23, in Huntington Park to remember the elder Urzua. Trieras said the tragedy was especially difficult for Urzua’s 15-year-old daughter, Melissa.

“She just stayed home and cried all day. She can’t believe her father is dead,” Trieras said.

While friends reminisced at the house, Oscar Urzua was in Ventura arranging for the release of his father’s body. Bob Hammon, manager of the Halverson-Luce Mortuary in Huntington Park, said Urzua’s body will be taken to Guatemala after it is released from the Ventura County coroner’s office today. A rosary will probably be recited Thursday evening at the mortuary, Hammon said.

Urzua began scuba diving about four months ago, Ortega said. On Sunday, he was with a group of divers from the Port Hueneme-based boat Sea Venture.

At 12:48 p.m., while Urzua was underwater at an undetermined depth, his tank ran out of oxygen, according to Coast Guard Petty Officer Mark Wilkins.

His buoyancy vest inflated and Urzua surfaced. Authorities do not know if the vest deployed automatically or if Urzua inflated the vest manually. Either way, the speed with which he surfaced caused the bends, or decompression sickness, and Urzua lost consciousness.

Urzua reportedly showed no signs of life when he was pulled aboard the Sea Venture.

The boat’s crew tried to revive Urzua with cardiopulmonary resuscitation but was unsuccessful, Wilkins said. They contacted the Coast Guard station in Oxnard, which dispatched a Dolphin helicopter and a crew of emergency medical technicians from Los Angeles.

“Despite the dive boat’s efforts and the medical technicians on the aircraft, they could not get an airway going on him,” Wilkins said.

Urzua was airlifted to Columbia Los Robles for treatment in the hospital’s hyperbaric chamber. He was unresponsive, however, and was pronounced dead 10 minutes after arrival.

No one from the Sea Venture was available for comment.