DATELINE: 15 November 2002

FLORIDA DIVER WINS $17.5 MILLION OUT OF COURT SETTLEMENT FOR PARALYSIS AFTER A BEND

41-year-old diver Brian Schiner, who was left paralysed from the chest down by a bend after a dive centre failed to give him oxygen, has won a record settlement of 17.5 million dollars.
Schiner was diving with a group at Ritz-Carlton's Jamaican resort Aqua Sun Sports. The group were expecting a 20m reef dive, but the centre mistakenly them put onto a dive site that was over 50m deep. The resulting confusion led to divers splitting up and surfacing indiscriminately.
Schiner was separated from his buddy but managed to make his way back to the surface. He collapsed into unconsciousness shortly afterwards, but there was no oxygen on the dive boat.
Schiner was immediately flown to a hyperbaric chamber in Miami and received treatment for 6 months but was left paraplegic. His record settlement was based on a calculation of his future loss of earnings as a result of the injury. Schiner is a partner in a pretigious Baltimore insurance agency.
Settling out of court is not an admission of liability on the part of the dive centre, however, a spokesman for the company had the good grace to admit that errors had been made.