the bends

Reader's　Digest 7/8月合併号の記事 "Leaving His Fiancee To" からの引用です。

It's called saturation diving because at the intense pressures found in the deep sea, gas that a diver breaths saturates the body. When the diver surfaces and the pressure drops, this gas can emerge as deadly bubbles in the blood and tissues, causing decompression sickness, or the bends. SAT divers reduce this risk by living full-time in a pressurized chamber in the dive ship.

文脈からして "the bends" はいわゆる潜水病のようですが、辞書で確認します。

・Oxford English Dictionary: Decompression sickness, especially in divers.: The disease suffered by divers known as the bends (decompression sickness) is an example of the same phenomenon.

・Collins Dictionary: (functioning as singular or plural) a nontechnical name for decompression sickness; the severe pain in the limbs, joints, and abdomen during decompression sickness, preceded by the

・Cambridge English Dictionary: a serious medical condition that divers (= people who swim underwater) get when they come up to the surface of the water too quickly

この意味の場合は必ず 'the' が付き 'bends' と複数形で使われるとありますね。