recompression chamber to rid his body of an air bubble following a scuba-diving nightmare.

Mr. Marc Shuman got into difficulties after diving around the Hermes wreck off South Shore last Thursday.

After surfacing, the left side of his body began tingling, and he became virtually paralysed.

Although he appeared to recover, the New Yorker was rushed to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital and placed in a recompression chamber.

He was then subjected to 30 hours inside the long, cylindrical chamber, with 90-degree temperatures.

Pressure was used to force all the air in Mr. Shuman's body to be absorbed by blood.

His wife, Michele, was given a bed outside the chamber, and able to speak to him via a telephone.

Yesterday Mr. Shuman, who flies home today with his wife, relived his holiday ordeal.

He told how his left side began tingling and became numb after he had surfaced from his 80ft dive.

"The sensation moved from my hand to my shoulder and then down my left leg.'' Mr. Shuman, from Bellmore, was full of praise for his crew, Heinz Lauppi, Adrian Robthan, and Mark Adams, from Nautilus Diving Ltd.

Dr. Edward Schultz explained how Mr. Shuman "sustained an air embolism, caused by air bubbles in the blood.'' He said pressure in the chamber was let off very slowly to keep the air dissolved in Mr. Shuman's blood.

The chamber, resembling a huge Thermos, is fitted with pressure-guages and, of course, a telephone.

Inside, Mr. Shuman was accompanied by an operator Mr. Fred Chambers, and the pressure left them both light-headed and unable to concentrate.

"We began talking like Donald Duck,'' said Mr. Shuman.

Mr. Peter Haines, chairman of the recompression chamber committee, converted the usual six-hour programme to a 30-hour one.

This followed advice from the Divers' Alert Network (DAN), a non-profit organisation based at Duke University, North Carolina. Mrs. Shuman praised volunteers from the British Sub-Aqua Club who staffed the machine for their help.

They took her to the Southampton Princess, where the family were staying, and also drove around to fetch food.

"There were 64 people involved, and I've got the names of every one of them,'' she said.

The couple's four-year-old girl, meanwhile, appeared to have little idea about her father's experience.

"She thought her father had eaten something that disagreed with him.'' said Mrs. Shuman.

TUNNEL VISION -- American diver Mr. Marc Shuman, left, and Mr. Fred Chambers pictured yesterday in the recompression chamber at King Edward VII Hospital.