Dr. Adel Taher has been the Medical Director of the Hyperbaric Medical Center in Sharm el Sheikh and Dahab since 1993, and considered one of the world’s top experts in the field of hyperbaric medicine. His career is centered on the development of hyperbaric medicine as it connects to dive tourism in the region of Sharm el Sheik, Egypt.
He arrived in Sharm in April 1982 with the Egyptian army and the first municipality of civil workers coming to receive “C” section of the Sinai from the Israelis as part of the Camp David agreement. He and his colleagues were the first Egyptians to dive Ras Mohamed after it was returned. Diving facilities in the area were scarce with no chamber, ambulances, intensive care unit or search and rescue divers.
Dr. Taher stressed the safety aspects of diving to his students who became experts on decompression illness and first aid, learning how to treat poisonous fish stings by the time they finished their open-water course. Dive Masters were instructed on suturing wounds and deliver infusions, if they had to.
As dive tourism expanded Dr. Taher and his team worked with fellow dive professionals, dive center managers and owners, and local authorities to set and enforce diving safety regulations. They managed to introduce new regulations such as having oxygen onboard dive boats and worked closely with DAN to establish unified systems and protocols. The increasing number of divers arriving to dive the Red Sea put a tremendous strain on the marine environment. Dr. Taher became part of the local team whose members dive every other day to remove debris and trash from the sea.
In 1993, Dr. Taher managed to finally obtain a recompression chamber for Sharm el-Sheikh thus providing a foundation of safety that had long been needed. Since that time the Hyperbaric Medical Center and its team have treated thousands of patients and never refused one.
In 1994 Dr. Taher met with Professor Alessandro Marroni of DAN Europe, and began the formation of DAN Egypt, which is an affiliate of DAN Europe. Professor Marroni became a true friend, mentor and a shield protecting DAN Egypt in difficult times. He gave DAN-Egypt his full support, which allowed it to expand and grow and serve all DAN members and non-DAN members in cases of emergency in Egypt and in neighboring countries.