A Keighley diver who was airlifted to safety after getting into difficulties off the east coast is recovering in a specialist hospital unit.

Charles Waller, (pictured right), 38, from Utley, suffered severe decompression illness on Sunday after making two deep dives in quick succession.

A helicopter was scrambled from RAF Leconfield to take him to the decompression-chamber unit at the private East Riding Hospital, Anlaby, near Hull.

He was diving 20 miles off Easington, from the boat Jane R, when the incident happened.

His wife Cath, also a keen diver, was on the same trip but was not diving with her husband at the time.

Yesterday Gerard Laden, technical director at the hospital unit, told us that Mr Waller was responding well to treatment.

He said: "He was in the decompression chamber eight or nine hours initially.

"He is now having twice-daily physiotherapy and oxygen therapy, and we have implemented a drug regime.

"He is receiving the best quality care and is responding well.

We are very hopeful that in time he will make a full recovery, but I don't know at this stage when he will be discharged from the unit.

"It should be stressed that Mr Waller is a very experienced and competent diver.

"What happened to him on Sunday was not the result of any mistake.

" It was a quirk of fate which could happen to any diver. He had done everything right."

It is the 20th case of the bends that the unit - which deals with patients from all over the north - has treated this year.

Mr Waller has been involved with Keighley Sub Aqua Club for years.

In 1997 he and two club colleagues - including Cath - helped rescue another diver who had got into difficulties while diving to the wreck of the USS Fort Yale in the English Channel.

Mr Waller is understood to have dived to 36 metres, and then followed that with a 41-metre dive.

On surfacing after the second dive he showed classic signs of decompression illness.

He was taken to the unit suffering from chest pains and pins and needles in his legs.

He had earlier been given oxygen while awaiting the arrival of the helicopter from RAF Leconfield.

Mr Laden says the initial treatment given at the unit followed standard protocol advocated by the Royal Navy and US Navy.

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