Well, if you remove the (incorrect) issue of "abrupt exposure" and the (correct) issue of "lack of oxygen", the article propose that getting the bends is a problem for the circulatory system of vertebrates. Nitrogen gas bubbles from the lowered pressure in tissues will accumulate damage and blockage. Eventually there may be a blockage that stops the hearth or damage the brain too much for survival.
Seen as an astrobiological question [sorry, can't help myself], the next problem could be dehydration. That can be seen by looking at the multicellular organisms that do well in vacuum, with or without a little help of a "nanosuit":
"Normally, if you put an insect in a vacuum, it dies. Its bodily fluids are rapidly sucked out of its body, which then collapses inwards into a crumpled husk. This is why SEMs are used on already dead specimens, which have been specially preserved. But Takahiko Hariyama from Hamamatsu University School of Medicine found that fruit fly maggots can survive these harsh conditions.
Bizarrely, Hariyama found that the microscope’s electron beam was somehow protecting the maggots. Indeed, if he turned the beam off before putting the insects in the vacuum chamber, their bodies crumpled in the usual horrific way.
Hariyama’s hunch was that the energetic electrons fuse molecules in the larvae’s cuticle (its outer layer) into a defensive coating, creating a hard but flexible barrier over their bodies. This barrier is just 50 to 100 nanometres (billionths of a metre) thick, but it’s enough to stop gases and liquids from leaving the larva’s body.
The maggots, and a few other insects, already have the right combination of molecules in their cuticles to make nanosuits. The team hasn’t identified the exact substances, but they seem to be amphiphilic—that is, they can dissolve in both water and fat."
"Only a few animals have been known to survive a vacuum, including a tick that waved hello from an SEM chamber, and cute pond creatures called tardigrades, which have survived in the vacuum of space. The tardigrades cheated—they first dried themselves into a dormant and far more durable state. If you took a normal hydrated tardigrade and put it in a vacuum, including in an SEM, it would die."
[
http://phenomena.nationalgeographic...llow-insects-to-survive-in-space-like-vacuum/ ]
"The electron beam does take its toll, though. While all the ticks survived for at least two days,
they can last for several weeks if they never see an SEM, or even
if they’re only exposed to the vacuum. ...
Even after 30 minutes with most of the air around them sucked away, the ticks survived. ...
It’s not that ticks don’t need air. Indeed, some anti-tick chemicals work by blocking up the holes through which they breathe. It just seems that they can go without air for a long time, with no ill effects."
[
http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2012/03/15/tick-vacuum-electron-microscope/ ; my bold]
TL;DR:
1. In principle, organisms which gets oxygen can survive in a vacuum for a very long time, at least on time scales of hours, without any lasting effects. The survival time may be limited by tissue dehydration.
2. Ticks and mites are nasty bugs. But so are humans, who takes vacuum better than many arthropods. Maybe that is why it appears all humans have joined up with mites... oo)
[ "
Demodex mites are a group of hair follicle and sebaceous gland-dwelling species. The species of these mites found on humans are arguably the animals with which we have the most intimate interactions. Yet, their prevalence and diversity have been poorly explored. Here we use a new molecular method to assess the occurrence of
Demodex mites on humans. In addition, we use the 18S rRNA gene (18S rDNA) to assess the genetic diversity and evolutionary history of
Demodex lineages.
Within our samples, 100% of people over 18 years of age appear to host at least one Demodex species, suggesting that Demodex mites may be universal associates of adult humans. ..."
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0106265 ]
