Noun

Definition:a sometimes fatal disorder that is marked by neuralgic pains and paralysis, distress in breathing, and often collapse and that is caused by the release of gas bubbles (as of nitrogen) in tissue upon too rapid decrease in air pressure after a stay in a compressed atmosphere .

I first encountered this term when listening to Radiohead’s second album entitled “The Bends”. Recently, this term came up in Philip Lopate’s Waterfront: A Walk Around Manhattan, in which he describes the condition workers had to deal with as they worked on the Brooklyn Bridge.

I know understand that this is a sickness that affects divers or anyone who is under a compressed atmosphere for too long. Many died because of this disease while they were working on the Brooklyn Bridge and no one knew why people were dying in a crippled a form.

Source:http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/decompression+sickness