MOOLOOLABA, Australia (28 Sep 2007) -- A Dubbo man was pulled unconscious from the water off Mooloolaba this morning after suffering a mystery condition. Bob Shepherd, 54, was on a chartered HMAS Brisbane diving trip with his son Adrian when he surfaced after 34 minutes, limp and unresponsive. He had begun his ascent normally, and stopped for the compulsory safety stop five metres before the surface for three to five minutes. Upon surfacing, he couldn't lift his head and signaled with his hands that something was wrong. Two crew pulled him from the water and administered oxygen, by which stage he had lost consciousness. The man's son, Adrian, said his dad was an experienced diver and the pair took regular diving trips together. "I don't know what happened," he said. "He just came up to the surface and went limp. I wasn't near him, so I didn't see what went wrong. We have done over 120 dives and nothing like this has happened before. "I think he's going to be okay." Scuba World proprietor Ian McKinnon said Mr Shepherd had logged 130 dives and had just returned from diving the historic Yongala wreck site off Townsville. "It was a normal dive in excellent conditions under the control of a dive leader," he said. "The ascent was normal and he stopped for a compulsory safety stop five metres from the surface for three to five minutes. He then swam up to the mooring line but instead of coming around the boat to come aboard he didn't orientate himself towards the ladder. "I was spotting on the boat and could see the bubbles that showed he was breathing. But he was waving his hand palm down across the surface of the water. "I directed a dive leader to swim to him and with the help of another diver they towed him to the boat and we brought him aboard." | | Bob Shepherd, 54, is treated by an ambulance officer after a scuba diving accident at the HMAS Brisbane. Photo by Paul Kennedy The crew administered oxygen, but Mr Shepherd was not responding to thier voices. Mr McKinnon rang the ambulance and had him back on shore at the Mooloolaba jetty on Parkyn Pararde within 10 minutes. "His son was beside him the whole time and he was under the care of two dive leaders who are both trained in first aid. We were met by the ambulance and after about five to 10 minutes he could talk to them'' An ambulance spokesman said Mr Shepherd's condition did not appear to be caused by decompression illness, so they were unsure why he had lost consciousness. The Shepherd family had been holidaying on the Sunshine Coast for a week. 
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