A Man Who Survived 30 Minutes with No Oxygen

Bright Side

There's this British man named Chris Lemons, right? Guy's basically a legend 'cause he pulled off this insane survival stunt. Picture this: he's chilling at the bottom of the North Sea for over 30 minutes, zero air flow, nada. But get this, against all odds, he freaking lives! Like, talk about a close call, huh? Lemons' story? It's the stuff of survivalist dreams. How was it even possible? Let's dive in to find out.   Credit:  Clump weight bell: MichaelSmart, CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Clump_weight_bell.png  Animation is created by Bright Side.  #brightside   ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/   Listen to Bright Side on:  Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/podcast/idhttps-podcasts-apple-com-podcast-bright-side/id1554898078 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Social Media: Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/brightside/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/brightside.official/ Tik Tok - https://www.tiktok.com/@brightside.official?lang=en Snapchat - https://www.snapchat.com/p/c6a1e38a-bff1-4a40-9731-2c8234ccb19f/1866144599336960  Stock materials (photos, footages and other):  https://www.depositphotos.com  https://www.shutterstock.com  https://www.eastnews.ru  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me

Transcript

00:00 So get this, you're more likely to encounter a unicorn in a coffee shop than survive at

00:06 the bottom of the ocean without air for more than half an hour.

00:11 But some people are that lucky and unlucky at the same time.

00:15 Take Chris Lemons, for example.

00:18 Chris Lemons is a commercial saturation diver whose life changed in September 2012.

00:25 It was a normal working day for him and his colleagues Duncan and David.

00:30 They were sitting in a special chamber on the ship above the diving site.

00:35 Then they entered a diving bell, crammed like sardines in a can.

00:39 This is like another chamber dangling from the ship which they use to get to the diving

00:43 site.

00:44 This chamber is like the claw machine you catch toys with, but instead of a claw, it

00:49 has a small chamber at the end.

00:51 They arrived at the diving site, and Chris and Dave prepared to dive.

00:56 Duncan was staying in the bell to monitor the gear and, the most crucial part, the umbilical

01:02 cord.

01:03 This cord supplies divers with oxygen, heat, and power to keep their lights shining because

01:08 at such a depth, it's super dark.

01:12 So it's important for someone to monitor the situation since divers' lives depend

01:17 on it.

01:18 To better understand the process, you must know more about commercial saturation diving.

01:24 Being in the office the whole day is much safer than being a commercial saturation diver,

01:29 unless your office is an alliance cage.

01:33 Saturation diving is so rare and dangerous that you've probably just heard about it

01:38 now.

01:39 You must dive deep in the cold ocean to work on oil pipes and such.

01:45 Diving in general can be risky because of something called decompression sickness.

01:50 If you dive too deep and rise to the surface too quickly, tiny bubbles of nitrogen can

01:56 form inside your body, which can cause serious health issues or worse.

02:02 That is not a problem for regular divers because they don't dive nearly as deep as saturation

02:07 divers.

02:09 Saturation divers go from 600 feet to 1,000 feet underwater.

02:13 That's almost the height of the Empire State Building.

02:17 Rising to the surface from that crazy depth can take as long as 2 weeks.

02:22 It takes less time to go to the moon and back.

02:26 It's almost impossible to stay in the water for 2 weeks, so divers have a unique trick

02:30 that keeps them alive.

02:32 A chamber cleverly designed to have the same pressure as the bottom of the ocean.

02:37 They spend months in this chamber.

02:40 The chamber is isolated; it's like being in jail, but much worse.

02:45 You can't get out no matter what.

02:47 The world could be on fire, but you'd have to stay inside or pass away.

02:53 The good news is that divers have the Internet there.

02:58 The chamber is filled with a mixture of helium and oxygen, so if you want to call your family,

03:03 you will sound funny.

03:05 Most divers don't call anybody.

03:06 Because it's fun to inhale helium and talk in a funny voice for a short time.

03:11 But doing it for weeks isn't very pleasant.

03:16 Now you know more about this type of job and how dangerous it is.

03:20 Thanks to all those clever tricks, divers can do their job without facing significant

03:25 risks.

03:26 But sometimes, bad things are inevitable.

03:30 So let's return to our story.

03:33 Chris and Dave had to replace a pipe section and do regular check-ups at the bottom of

03:38 the North Sea.

03:39 For them, it was like teaching a cat to nap.

03:42 Whatever that is.

03:43 But the weather above them was not so good.

03:46 There was a strong wind and waves that reached 13 feet.

03:50 On the other hand, weather like that was typical for the North Sea.

03:54 So there was nothing unusual to worry about.

03:57 The ship carrying out the mission had a crazy feature similar to autopilot.

04:02 No matter how many waves there were, they would keep the vessel stable.

04:07 The dive was going smoothly until the alarm started beeping out of nowhere.

04:13 Dave and Chris immediately climbed in.

04:15 David made it to the bell safely, but Chris' cord caught the edge of the manifold, and

04:20 no matter what he did, he couldn't get out.

04:24 He thought this should not have happened because there was plenty of slackline.

04:28 He could hear the cord tightening, then realized that the ship had started moving.

04:34 He had basically become an anchor, and as we all know, humans are not designed to be

04:39 anchors.

04:40 The cord snapped, and he fell to the bottom of the sea.

04:43 This was the worst situation that could happen to him.

04:46 He lost everything – oxygen, communication, and heat.

04:49 Meaning he would either freeze or suffocate.

04:53 He had around 5 minutes of emergency O2, but that was not nearly enough to survive.

05:00 Chris had to climb up to the manifold to be rescued.

05:03 But when the cord snapped, his light went out, so he had to walk in the pitch-black

05:07 sea and navigate by feeling around.

05:10 Chris couldn't even see his hands, but he did the impossible and climbed to the manifold.

05:17 The problems didn't end there, unfortunately.

05:20 He was in the worst possible situation, and no one could tell him what to do or what had

05:25 happened.

05:26 Every breath was more valuable than a bucket of gold, so he had to breathe super slowly.

05:32 Chris had only 2 minutes of oxygen left by the time he climbed up, and after some time,

05:38 when he didn't see any signs of the rescue team, he lost all hope.

05:44 The ship that was supposed to save him was in chaos.

05:47 They couldn't stay stable to find him.

05:50 All odds were against Chris at that moment.

05:53 The only thing in his favor was that the ship had a small submarine that could be controlled

05:57 remotely and the crew could see what had happened to him.

06:02 They got to the diving spot, and it was like watching a horror movie.

06:06 You can't look away, and you can't unsee it.

06:09 They all expected to see the diver in the worst possible shape.

06:13 By some miracle, he was still moving, but not for long.

06:18 Tons of people were glued to the screen, watching their colleagues suffer.

06:22 They weren't that far from the site, but they couldn't do anything to save their

06:26 friend.

06:28 After the ship had stabilized, they went where Chris was.

06:32 By that time, they had lost all hope and were going down to recover the body.

06:37 David was tasked with getting Chris.

06:40 He was feeling on edge, but prepared mentally for the challenge ahead.

06:44 About a half hour later, David finally arrived at the destination.

06:49 He immediately grabbed Chris and climbed into the bell.

06:53 Duncan was waiting for them inside.

06:55 When they arrived, Duncan immediately took off Chris' diving mask.

07:00 What they saw was horrifying.

07:03 Chris' face was not the usual color, and he was cold.

07:07 He looked like he had passed away.

07:10 Duncan had tried giving him first aid, and suddenly, Chris jumped up, lively as can be,

07:16 and sat down in his seat.

07:19 David and Duncan were shocked.

07:21 Chris seemed to be completely fine.

07:24 He was examined by lots of doctors and was announced to be as healthy as someone who

07:29 had spent a half an hour without air could be.

07:32 By all odds, he shouldn't have survived more than 3 minutes without air.

07:38 No scientist to this day knows how he survived.

07:42 It could've been because he had been exposed to a high level of O2 in the chamber, and

07:47 he also had a higher than normal O2 level in his lungs.

07:51 The cold temperature could've slowed down his metabolism and prevented him from losing

07:56 too much energy, but nobody knows for sure.

08:01 You would think that after this, he would never dive again, but he continues to work

08:06 as a saturation diver to this day and has no intention of quitting.

08:11 He even got back to the same spot that nearly destroyed him and finished the job that he

08:17 had started.

08:18 Wow.

08:19 That's it for today, so hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like

08:24 and share it with your friends!

08:26 Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the Bright Side!

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