Commercial Diver Injuries

Commercial divers are often classified as Jones Act seamen.  Many offshore industries use divers as support for their efforts.  Divers may assist in the construction phase of a job as well as in salvage efforts when the site is closing down.  While seamen face dangers on the water that far exceed the circumstances of most land-based employees, the risks that divers face are even greater than those of seamen. 

Commercial divers experience injuries and dangers that are specific to their duties and industry.  Divers must be concerned with injuries resulting from the effects of pressure on the body with the depths at which they work as well as other injuries resulting from the performance of work in the water, as opposed to on the water.  Injuries resulting from the change in pressure and its effects on the body may include arterial gas embolism, pulmonary barotraumas, pneumothorax, mediastinal and subcutaneous emphysema, injuries to and infection of the ear, decompression sickness, oxygen toxicity and carbon monoxide poisoning. 

Possibly the most serious of these injuries are those related to uncontrolled ascension.  On ascent, the air in a diver’s lungs expands as the pressure on the body decreases.  If a diver fails to exhale properly during ascent, as the air expands, the lungs over expand and the increased pressure in the lungs may result in rupture.  The rupture of the lung is referred to as pulmonary barotrauma.  This condition, in turn may lead to several other dangerous conditions.  Air that escapes from the lungs on ascension and following a pulmonary barotrauma may enter the blood stream in the form of an arterial gas embolism, which occurs when air escapes into the pulmonary venous system, moves through the heart and enters the arteries.  In this instance, air bubbles form in the blood and are carried through the body.  As the diver continues his ascent, these bubbles expand, just as the air in the lungs did.  As the air bubble increases in size it can become lodged in the smaller vessels of the body blocking blood flow.  If this occurs, blood flow and the oxygen supply to a particular part of the body is reduced or stopped causing damage to the tissue and organs.  The Jones Act covers these specific injuries to divers.