Decompression sickness practices in lobster diving among the indigenous Miskito people, who face great economic pressures. At that time it was estimated that in the country over 2000 divers had been injured and 300 others had died since the 1970s. In the United States, it is common for medical insurance not to cover treatment for the bends that is the result of recreational diving. This is because scuba diving is considered an elective and "high-risk" activity and treatment for decompression sickness is expensive. A typical stay in a recompression chamber will easily cost several thousand dollars, even before emergency transportation is included.
Decompression equipment during in water decompression for scuba divers, but can be up to 1.9 bar in-water and 2.2 bar in the chamber when using the US Navy tables for surface decompression, and up to 2.8 bar for therapeutic decompression. Open circuit scuba divers by definition are independent of surface supply, and must take any gas mixture with them that is to be used on the dive. However, if they are confident of returning by a specific route, the decompression gas may be stored at appropriate places on that route. The cylinders used for this purpose are called stage cylinders, and they