Magician assesses how stunt went awry
Published 9:00 pm Tuesday, May 9, 2006
NEW YORK – David Blaine was unconscious and having convulsions when he was rescued from his 8-foot aquarium during a breath-holding stunt, his trainer said Tuesday.
“I wasn’t focused on records; I was thinking of a rescue,” said trainer Kirk Krack, a free-diving expert. Blaine was convulsing and “unconscious when we brought him to the surface. If we hadn’t intervened, he would still be at the bottom of the sphere doing a breath-hold.”
The 33-year-old illusionist had been submerged in the aquarium with an oxygen mask for a week. Rescue divers jumped into the 2,000-gallon saltwater tank Monday night and hauled him up.
He was rescued as he struggled to break a breath-holding record of 8 minutes, 58 seconds. Blaine, who has spent some 177 hours underwater, went without air for 7 minutes, 8 seconds as a finale to his endurance stunt at Lincoln Center, which was televised live on ABC.
Blaine checked himself out of Roosevelt Hospital on Tuesday. Friends took him out of the hospital in a wheelchair and then helped him walk to a waiting car.
At home, he took a hot shower, played cards and was able to eat.
But “he was crying” Monday night, said Dr. Murat Gunel, the head of Blaine’s medical team. “He still feels today that he let people down.”
Blaine’s liver and kidney functions suffered while he was submerged but are now improving.
His team concluded that strenuous training and losing 50 pounds so his body would require less oxygen left Blaine too tired before he entered the sphere.
