Editors decided not to run this little story as people were losing interest. Oh well.
By DEREK ROSE
David Blaine checked himself out of the hospital against medical advice early yesterday, hours after being pulled semiconscious from his water-filled plastic sphere.
The Brooklyn-born daredevil left his hospital room in a wheelchair. Friends helped him walk from the front door of Roosevelt Hospital to an awaiting cab, his doctor said.
“He’s doing reasonably well,” said Dr. Murat Gunel. “He’s still weak but he’s able to tolerate food,” eating some chicken noodle soup.
Blood tests showed Blaine damaged his liver and kidneys during his weeklong stay in the water-filled plastic bubble, but Gunel was hopeful the damage wouldn’t be permanent. His skin is “much better,” the doctor added.
Mentally, Blaine was still beating himself up over failing to beat the 8 minute 58 second world record for holding his breath. Divers rescued him after 7 minutes and 8 seconds, after Blaine went into convulsions and passed out.
“David still feels he failed and let people down,” said Kirk Krack, the free-diving expert who ordered the rescue. “Although it ended in a blackout, a loss of motor control and us performing a rescue operation, I’d say it was a phenomenal success.”
There’s only a handful of people in the world, perhaps 15, who could hold there breath for seven minutes, Krack said. Only Blaine could have done it after the stress he put himself through beforehand, Krack added.
Problems with the chains around Blaine’s wrists and ankles left him off-balance and cost him any shot of breaking the world record, Krack said.
“I wouldn’t say he was guaranteed of getting to nine minutes” without the chain problems, Krack said. “I would say it was a toss-up off as to getting to nine.”
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It sounds like he was just trying to do too much. He went into the sphere exhausted from overtraining after “adding on” to the program Krack had given him. And the chains were a last-minute addition by Blaine.
I’m sure this was discussed weeks ago, but why wasn’t the whole thing seen as a suicide attempt? And thus, illegal?
It’s gross to cause yourself pain like that. It’s a sign of mental illness. It gives me the willies.
I’m not sure why the News wouldn’t have thought people were interested in that, though. It’s an interesting piece.
Come on, people…..that was not convulsions, just an attempt to make it sound dramatic. He would have sucked in a lot of water rather than exhale, as he did, if he had really lost consciousness. But I still dig him.