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 practice of stops the diver is willing to carry out. A procedure for dealing with omitted decompression stops is described in the US Navy Diving Manual. In principle the procedure allows a diver who is not yet presenting symptoms of decompression sickness, to go back down and complete the omitted decompression, with some extra added to deal with the bubbles which are assumed to have formed during the period where the decompression ceiling was violated. Divers who become symptomatic before they can be returned to depth are treated for decompression sickness, and do not attempt the omitted decompression procedure as the