He Was 330 Feet Deep Without Anything to Breathe -- and Survived: Undercurrent 06/2019 (2024)

Contents of this Issue:
All publicly available

Caribbean Explorer II, Saba, St. Kitts, St. Martin

Why Does Explorer Ventures Still Have a Fuel Surcharge?

Are We Americans Good Tippers or Just Total Suckers?

Apple’s iPhone Plans to Lure Underwater Photographers

What’s Your Real Risk of a Diving Death?

More Global Shipping Means More Invasive Marine Species on Coral Reefs

He Was 330 Feet Deep Without Anything to Breathe -- and Survived

How You Can Get Great Underwater Pictures

Galápagos

Top Tips from Other Dive Photo Pros

The Mission to Save Our Oceans By Next Year

Helium Is Now Harder to Get

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When someone dies while scuba diving, inevitablythe autopsy reveals drowning, even if it was only thefinal episode in a sequence of events leading up to thefatality. It's not a surprise. However, miracles can happenunderwater, and a rare, lucky diver can be broughtback from the dead. That's the subject of a new Britishdocumentary, Last Breath, which tells the story of acommercial diver who survived against all odds afterbeing deprived of air. Science tells us the human bodycan last for only a few short minutes without oxygen --he lasted 38 minutes.

On September 18, 2012, saturation diver ChrisLemons was 330 feet below the surface, fixing pipes atan oil well off Scotland's eastern coast, while breathingheliox, a helium-oxygen mix. It was supplied from hissupport boat, the Bibby Topaz, via an umbilical pipelinethat also provided essential warming water for his suit,and communications with his supervisor. But when itspositioning system failed, the Bibby Topaz broke freein the North Sea's turbulent waters, and Lemons andother divers were dragged from their work site.

While the others were able to make it to the safetyof their submerged hyperbaric chamber, known as a"diving bell," dangling from the ship, Lemons' lifelinegot snagged on a piece of metal sticking out of the oilwell, and was severed. He was wearing an emergencybackup life support system in the form of a closed-circuitrebreather, but he knew that at that depth, its gassupply was only good for a few minutes. Climbing thesubmerged oil rig on which he was working, Lemonswas dismayed to find the sanctuary of the diving bellhad gone with the support vessel.

It took around 30 minutes to get the Bibby Topaz back into position, by which time the other divers,safely in the diving bell, assumed they'd be engagedin a body recovery. They launched a remote-controlledsubmarine in the hope of finding Lemons, and when itdid, they watched helplessly on its cameras as Lemons'movements gradually stopped, his life fading away.

Once the other divers returned to the spot where helay, they dragged Lemons' body back into the divingbell. Common sense told them he must have perished,but what could they do but attempt to resuscitate him?They removed his diving helmet and gave him twobreaths of mouth-to-mouth. Miraculously, Lemonscame around, conscious.

Now, nearly seven years later, Lemons continuesto work as a saturation diver, but is still perplexed asto how he managed to survive so long, at that depth,without oxygen. It appears to be a combination oforgans and blood still saturated with oxygen from hisheliox supply, combined with a North Sea water temperatureaveraging 37 degrees that quickly cooled hisbody and brain once there was no hot water flowingthrough his suit, that conspired to allow him to survive.

"The human body doesn't have a great store of oxygen,maybe a couple of liters," Mike Tipton, head ofthe Extreme Environments Laboratory at PortsmouthUniversity in England, told BBC Future."How you usethat up depends on your metabolic rate."

"Rapid cooling of the brain can increase survivaltime without oxygen. If you reduce the temperature,the metabolic rate drops. If you lower the braintemperature down to 30 degrees Celsius (86 degreesFahrenheit), it can increase the survival time from 10to 20 minutes. If you cool the brain to 20 degrees (68degrees Fahrenheit), you can get an hour."

Lemons' survival is not unheard of, either. Tiptonexamined 43 separate cases in the medical literatureof people who have been submerged in water for longperiods. Four of these recovered, including a two-anda-half-year-old girl who survived being underwater in acold lake for 66 minutes.

Last Breath is available to watch on Netflix. And youcan see an interesting 28-minute Q&A with Lemonsand the filmmakers on YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=7i78bozHZD8

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