Summer's Drought Reinforces Diving's Dangers

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Abstract
THIS SUMMER'S record-setting drought is making a common recreational activity—diving—even more dangerous than it's been deemed by physicians who must deal with its sometimes tragic aftermath. Record heat and absence of rain have lowered water levels, making many bodies of water too shallow for the diving that has been done there in the past. In Wisconsin, for example, Dennis Maiman, MD, reports a threefold increase in diving injuries this summer as compared with last. Through July, he had evaluated nine patients referred to him in his dual roles as director of the Spinal Cord Injury Centers at the Milwaukee Regional Medical Center and the Veterans Administration Hospital there. "Almost all of them say [they were injured because] they dived at places they've dived at for years" but which became too shallow because of the drought, Maiman said in a telephone interview. Furthermore, he notes, he has not seen a single

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