David Blaine's Bubble Bursts
Well, there's always Most Faces Shaved in One Hour...
The world record that David Blaine wanted--Longest Breath Held Underwater--didn't fall to the stunt man Monday night.
Blaine, tired, achy and wrinkly from a seven-day, seven-night stay in a water-filled acrylic ball in Manhattan, held his breath for seven minutes, eight seconds, before divers, responding to an all-hands-on-deck bubbles alert, returned the endurance artist to dry land.
Upon resurfacing, a shirtless Blaine shivered, sucked up a bag of oxygen and cried as he thanked the supportive crowd outside Lincoln Center. Though shaky on his feet, it was considered an accomplishment that he was on his feet--he even took some wobbly steps with the help of his handlers.
All did not look well for Blaine's hands, though, which looked pale, bloated and sort of, well, saggy when he removed the gloves designed to provide underwater protection.
Blaine was taken to a hospital where he was administered I.V. fluid, spokesman Pat Smith said Tuesday. Blaine discharged himself at 3 a.m. Tuesday, and went home for a good, long rest.
In the aftermath of his self-imposed ordeal, Blaine has seen improvement in his hands and liver function, Smith said. But due to atrophied muscles, Blaine currently can walk only with assistance. And it was not known yet if he suffered permanent nerve damage.
Blaine, 33, had been hoping to hold his breath for nine minutes. The current best for underwater breath-holding is eight minutes, 58 seconds, set by a German man in 1998, Smith said.
Blaine's feat, or the attempt thereof, was commemorated in a live ABC TV special, David Blaine: Drowned Alive. For his trouble, Blaine ran fourth in the 8-10 p.m. time slot, although he averaged a strong 9.9 million viewers, per overnight estimates from Nielsen Media Research.
To be clear, Blaine didn't have to float in a bubble of water for seven days and seven nights, and then don chains (as he did Monday night) before attempting to set the underwater-breath-holding record. It was just more fun that way.
Or so Blaine thought.
On Sunday, six days after he'd submerged himself into the tank, Blaine told ABC News that life in a big fish bowl was starting to become "horrific in many, many ways. Every muscle doesn't just ache, it feels like a sharp, shooting pain--like a knife being stabbed."
But other than that...
"I don't think it's permanent, but I've never felt this kind of pain in a stunt before," Blaine told ABC News Sunday.
Previously, Blaine sat in a block of ice for 61 hours, fasted for 44 days in an acrylic box, and perched himself on a tiny platform overlooking Manhattan's Bryant Park for 35 hours.
For his underwater stunt, Blaine trained with professional divers and Navy Seals. Once submerged, he was fed through a tube. He went relieved himself the same way, though a tube.
Earlier Monday, a doctor who supervised Blaine's underwater routine told the New York Times that his patient was "pushing his body insanely to the limits."
"I told him he needed to get out of the water, and he refused me," Dr. Murat Gunel said in the newspaper. "He said he did not want to let the people down."
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