A man injured while diving in Redondo Beach’s King Harbor was airlifted to Catalina Island for treatment in a hyperbaric chamber Wednesday afternoon, authorities said.
Redondo Beach Baywatch lifeguards responded at about 12:15 p.m. to a 9-1-1 call of a man with “dive-related injuries,” said Los Angeles County Lifeguards spokeswoman Lidia Barillas. Further details were not available.
Hyperbaric chambers are used to treat decompression sickness — or “the bends” — a condition in which scuba divers who ascend too quickly after prolonged exposure to water pressure experience pain from nitrogen causing bubbles in their blood.
Barillas said she did not know what the man’s specific injuries were. His name was not released.
Redondo Beach Harbor Patrol, firefighters and Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies also responded to the incident, picking the injured diver up at Moonstone Park, an outcropping that separates two King Harbor boat basins.
