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This dude is lucky to be alive.
MANILA, Philippines — A few days after being pulled-down 300 feet below sea surface by a giant tuna along the waters off Kiamba in Sarangani, the condition of pleasure diver Ramir Te slightly improves as he continues to undergo decompression treatment in a hyperbaric chamber inside a Philippine Coast Guard vessel based in Cebu City.
Lt. Junior-Grade Rommel Mendoza, deputy director of the Coast Guard Action Center (CGAC) in Manila, said that although Te is still partially paralyzed in the lower part of the body, his condition was remarkably improved based on the assessment made by the PCG hyperbaric physician onboard BRP-San Juan (SARV-001) as he regularly received treatment inside the hyperbaric chamber of the vessel.
“Mr. Te is still temporarily half paralyzed due to the unfortunate incident where he was pulled down below 300 feet by a giant tuna approximately more than 50 kilograms in weight,” Mendoza said.
Te was later airlifted by a Philippine Air Force (PAF) helicopter to Cagayan de Oro City and the same day brought the victim in the PCG vessel.
The CGAC investigation revealed that Te, a professional and seasoned pleasure diver was participating in a fishing competition that time wherein they need to catch a big tuna fish for them to win the contest. Lt. JG. Mendoza revealed that when Te was around 80-ft below the sea surface, he spotted a giant tuna and immediately aim the creature using a spear bow with rope.
Mendoza explained that after Te hitting the big catch, he placed the rope around his waist but he did not noticed that the creature was still alive and he was pulled down below few seconds later.
“When he was pulled-down he decided to cut the rope around his waist and activated his buoyancy compensator device (BCD) around his chest to immediately ascend to the surface. The bad thing there is that he wasn’t able to decompress,” Mendoza said.
Decompression stop is procedure for the divers wherein he must spend at a constant depth in shallow water at the end of a dive to safely eliminate absorbed inert gases from the diver's body.
Mendoza noted by not doing this procedure properly, the divers may suffer several “diving sickness” such as numbness which can cause permanent paralysis.
PCG hyperbaric doctor Lt. Commander Eric Guieb is regularly monitoring the condition of the victim who was transferred to the Chiong Hua Hospital in Cebu City.
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Originally Posted by SportFishStaff
