Dr Henrik Friis Juhl

Henrik has managed more than 250 cases of decompression illness, including severe cases affecting the brain and spinal cord, and performed over 1,000 fitness-to-dive assessments. His work spans the immediate decisions in a diving emergency, recompression treatment, and questions about a safe return to the water.

Working in Zanzibar has also meant coordinating care across borders: speaking with treating clinicians, arranging referrals and working with evacuation teams when a patient needs further care. This combination of clinical experience and practical coordination is central to his work.

Henrik is registered as a specialist in baromedicine in Malta and works as a Medical Officer in the Hyperbaric Unit at Mater Dei Hospital. His clinical practice there includes hyperbaric oxygen treatment and emergency care.

Since 2025, he has also held advisory and telemedical roles with Divers Alert Network Southern Africa and DAN America, supporting the assessment and management of diving-related emergencies. This work brings him into contact with chamber teams, paramedics, evacuation services and doctors caring for divers internationally.

His advisory experience also includes diving medical risk, emergency preparedness and operational safety for work in Tanzania.

Henrik graduated in medicine from the University of Copenhagen in 2005. His early postgraduate training included orthopaedics at Rigshospitalet, gastrointestinal surgery and cardiology at Bispebjerg Hospital, and general practice. After further hospital work in Denmark, he worked at Ndolage Hospital in Tanzania from 2008 to 2010.

He completed the Operational Underwater Medicine course in Durban in 2011, including its theoretical and practical training and final examination. He has since returned to contribute to practical teaching and has served as a lecturer and examiner in underwater and hyperbaric medicine.

He is currently undertaking an MSc in Baromedical Sciences at Stellenbosch University. His research examines fifteen years of recreational diving-related illness treated at Zanzibar Hyperbaric Chamber, with a focus on long-term outcomes.

Henrik’s role in Zanzibar extends from medical decisions to the systems and people that make treatment possible. He has recruited and trained clinical and support staff, instructed chamber operators, and overseen safety, clinical governance and day-to-day operations.

His experience includes planning chamber relocation and commissioning, coordinating maintenance of pressure systems, and developing the facility’s infrastructure. He combines medical leadership with a practical understanding of how a chamber service works.

Alongside his medical work, Henrik serves as Denmark’s honorary consul in Zanzibar. He consults in Danish, English and Swahili.