Positively Naperville |Can a Ventilator-Dependent Person Scuba Dive?
by Jim Elliott | April 14, 2026
Muscular Dystrophy entered Matt Johnson’s life at an early age. It progressed to the point where Matt’s life depended on his breathing with the help of a ventilator.
His father’s dedication and love helped prolong Matt’s life into his adulthood. As a young man, Matt longed for adventure despite the fact that he would be a lifelong wheelchair user and in need of a ventilator to breathe.
During his quest for adventure, Matt discovered Scuba Diving and the nonprofit Downers Grove based Diveheart that specialized in teaching individuals with disabilities how to scuba dive.
Matt called and spoke with me about his desire to learn how to scuba dive. After a long conversation with Matt, I realized what kind of a challenge we would be facing together, but we agreed to give it a shot. We sent Matt’s scuba training materials to his home in Minnesota so that we could begin attacking the academic part of the training.
Via telephone I walked Matt through the physics, physiology, equipment and other aspects of scuba diving required to get certified as a scuba diver. After academic training was completed, we found Matt a local scuba instructor who was willing to travel to Downers Grove from Minneapolis to become a Diveheart adaptive scuba instructor.
We had no idea where the journey would take us. Matt’s scuba instructor successfully completed the academic and confined water Diveheart training during one weekend and returned to finish his Diveheart training the following weekend.
Unfortunately, the very next weekend after finishing his training, Matt’s instructor, who was a deep-water technical diver, used a defective scuba rebreather while diving locally and died.
Diveheart found Matt a new adaptive scuba instructor and Matt was able to continue his scuba journey.
Diveheart also lent support during a fundraiser for Matt where Diveheart took a blind diver to dive the aquarium at the Mall of America. Later I would dive with Matt in Key Largo, Florida, where he required medical staff, safety divers and a backup ventilator on site.
Matt wore a dry suit with a custom fitting for his ventilator hose and full-face mask to keep water off his body and his face. Matt’s journey and story continued and was eventually told by the Today Show on NBC.
I was honored to be part of Matt’s journey giving him the opportunity to imagine the possibilities in his life.