Melia is a Master Scuba Diver that loves underwater macro photography. Her common dive spots are Monterey, Hawaii, and the Caribbean. She is from far-Northern California and majored in Biology at Whitman College. She is currently completing a PhD in Biomedical Science at Cornell University and loves being able to combine scuba knowledge, writing skills, and medical advice into one column!
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Melia Matthews Articles
In this edition of “Lessons For Life,” we meet a diver whose poor fitness and panic in the water lead to a grave incident.
What happens when a diver enters the water with a partially closed air valve? And what outdated practice led to this mishap? Find out here.
In this Lessons for Life column, the cause of a diver's jaw pain is his dental work. Here's what you need to know about "tooth squeeze."
One diver learns about lionfish stings the hard way after sticking her hand under a ledge. See how it happened and what her buddies did to help.
Careful monitoring of your gas tank is imperative to staying safe while diving. Here, one diver learns a tough lesson when forced to surface too fast.
After experiencing difficulty breathing underwater, a diver's knowledge of immersion pulmonary edema—from a previous episode—proved beneficial when seeking treatment.
Divers should only share air in emergencies. One pair learned this lesson the hard way when they made the mistake of planning their entire dives on shared air—and running out.
An inexperienced diver on a surface-supplied air dive let distractions interfere with safety precautions, leading to chest pains later that day. Here's what happened—and how to treat it.
What happens when you experience rapidly progressing symptoms and you're on a liveaboard? Here's how a quick-reacting crew helped one diver seek treatment.