Why is flying on an airplane soon after going scuba diving so dangerous?

I saw this on House MD. One of House’s cases is on an airplane and he finds later that the guy had gone on a scuba diving trip the day before. Great show… :0)

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4 Responses to “Why is flying on an airplane soon after going scuba diving so dangerous?”

  1. Mister Sister on March 12th, 2010 at 4:11 am

    Because of pressure differences. Underwater the pressure is higher then when you’re in an airplane where it is much lower than on land. You then get decompression sickness which is where nitrogen in your body starts to bubble up on different parts of your body.

  2. did you watch house its on an episode but it presue changes

  3. idk

  4. When you SCUBA dive, breathing air, the higher pressure on your body causes the nitrogen part of that air to dissolve into your blood and body. When you surface this nitrogen comes out (slowly). This is similar to a flat bottle of coke. When you think all the gas has gone, but if you shake it you can see that there is some gas still in there.

    Your body is holding nitrogen in solution and that nitrogen is slowly coming out after the dive because you are at a lower pressure (the pressure at the surface), and there are no bubbles. However if you then take your body (the flat bottle of coke) to a lesser pressure (up to altitude) then the nitrogen starts to come out of solution faster. Perhaps fast enough to form bubbles. These bubbles may do some damage if they form in certain tissues in your body. That is decompression illness.

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