A student told how he almost died while diving almost 40ft underwater without oxygen to pick scallops for his lunch.
Jamie Nathaniel, 25, was trying to collect the shellfish for a barbecue with friends, off Oban’s uninhabited Maiden island.
An experienced free diver – plunging deep into water without oxygen – Jamie got into trouble and inhaled so much sea water that medics later told him he was lucky not to have died.
The 25-year-old, from Bo’Ness, near Falkirk, said: “If it wasn’t for Oban lifeboat, the ambulance, the paramedics, the NHS, I wouldn’t be here. There is no way for me to ever repay what they have done.”
Jamie and four fellow students headed to Maiden in an inflatable canoe on Monday after lectures at Oban’s Scottish Association for Marine Science.
He said: “It was a lovely day and the plan was to have a campfire on the island, then I was going to dive for some scallops.”
He and friends Hannah McVicar, Julie Volland, Patricia Martinez Mulas and Haleh Mawson were all in the sea when he went under water. He said: “I went for three or four dives and that’s where the memory cuts out. I think I was down to about 12 metres (39ft) and you hold your breath for about one and a half minutes.”
Jamie was found unconscious by Hannah and dragged to shore.
He added: “I started bringing up sea water but there was also a lot of blood as I had bitten my cheeks.”
Oban RNLI lifeboat raced to the scene, accompanied by paramedics.
Jamie said: “The next thing I remember is waking up in the lifeboat and the paramedics were snipping off my wet suit, then waking up in a hospital bed.”
The student was taken to Lorn and Islands Hospital in Oban but concerns over chest scans saw him airlifted to Paisley’s Royal Alexandra Hospital.
When he was discharged on Wednesday the doctor revealed how grim the situation had been. Jamie said: “The doctor showed me the chest scan and said, ‘It’s been a long time since I have seen a lung scan in this state and usually when I see lungs like this they don’t take the patient to the ward, they take them to the mortuary’.
“I think I will take a big break from diving, for my family’s sake, but I don’t think I will rule out diving again.”
Jamie is the eldest of three sons of Kenny and Katie Nathaniel.
Katie, 51, said: “We are under no illusions how lucky we are to have him there, we are still a family of five thanks to Hannah noticing what had happened and everyone else playing their part.”
Oban RNLI’s Ally Cerexhe said: “We’d particularly like to thank the crew of a local fishing boat who were helping on the scene when we arrived.”
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