EASTER visitors were treated to a surprising sight on Good Friday when a helicopter swooped into Penmaenmawr to rush two men to hospital.
The two were travelling in separate vehicles after a diving expedition at Dorothea quarry, Nantlle, near Caernarfon, when one became ill. They pulled over and managed to flag down passing coastguards, who alerted the ambulance service, who in turn summoned Wales Air Ambulance (WAA).
"We landed in a car park to the side of the A55 eastbound carriage-way near the promenade at Penmaenmawr, and diagnosed one man with suspected decompression sickness, or the 'bends'," says Mark Timmins, paramedic supervisor with WAA.
"We flew him to the hyperbaric unit at Murrayfield Hospital on the Wirral within 15 minutes, and took the second man as a precaution."
More than 20 divers have died at Dorothea quarry in the last 10 years, several taken to hospital suffering from the bends. Last month, Jason Dean, 31, from Wallasey, became the seventh to lose his life in just over two years.
"We advise our members not to go to Dorothea quarry because the owners haven't given their permission, and the Health and Safety Executive is not happy with commercial diving training on the site due to a lack of facilities," says the British Sub-Aqua Club's Welsh coach, David Wakelam.
"However, the site has a lot of potential as a training centre because there is no current or tide, but this would take a lot of investment.
"The site is no more dangerous than any other water, but there are no rescue facilities and it is easy to get into very deep water without realising."
