KEY POINTS:
A man is recovering at Devonport naval base's recompression centre after being stricken with the bends after diving in Lake Taupo yesterday.
A Lowe Corporation rescue helicopter spokesman said the 29-year-old man had done three dives in Lake Taupo and thought he may have come up a little too quickly on one of them.
Driving back to Hastings over the Napier-Taupo road, which reaches heights of more than 760m, he began to get headaches. "That's what may have set it off. As he's gone up, he's become less compressed, if you like. The nitrogen comes out and hits those joints," the helicopter spokesman said.
"He got headaches on the way back, nasty pains in his neck and shoulders, so he realised straight away what it was and took himself to hospital."
After being assessed at Hawkes Bay Regional Hospital, he was quickly taken by helicopter to the compression chamber on Auckland's North Shore.
In another rescue mission yesterday, a man in his early 60s was flown by Westpac rescue helicopter to Auckland Hospital after suffering heart problems while on a fishing charter off the Coromandel Peninsula.
- NZPA
