The recent tragedy involving the disappearance of the tourist submersible Titan brings back memories for many of this man who spent three days underwater in a bubble.
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Harrison Okene, a 29-year-old chef, found himself in dire straits in May 2013 when the boat he was on capsized after being battered by strong waves.
The eleven other crew members were killed when the ship was about 20 km from the coast of Niger.
“It was around 5am and I was in the toilet when the boat began to sink at full speed,” Mr Okene told the Guardian at the time.
As he rushed outside, he could not reach the emergency exit hatch and watched in horror as three crew members were sucked into the rough sea.
Water flushed him into another toilet as the boat plunged 100 feet into the freezing depths.
Mr. Okene, wearing only his knickerbockers, watched in horror as the water slowly seeped all around.
Then he realized that he was in a one square meter air bubble.
Mr. Okene quickly lost track of time.
“Everything around me was just dark and loud,” he said.
The shipwrecked man remained in the bubble for almost 60 hours, despairing of being rescued.
“I cried and begged Jesus to save me, I prayed so earnestly. I was hungry, thirsty and cold, just praying to see some light,” the survivor explained.
After three days of waiting, he suddenly heard knocking on the bridge.
The rescue team that came to the ship expected to recover Mr. Okene’s body.
“I went into the water and met the diver. He was shaking with fear. So I took a step back and put my hand in the water and waved it in front of his camera so they could see me,” Okene said.
After the shipwrecked man was located, a delicate rescue mission began.
Indeed, his body had ingested potentially lethal amounts of nitrogen.
“His heart couldn’t have pumped [sur la terre ferme] It was so full of gas,” said Christine Cridge, medical director of the Plymouth Diving Disease Research Centre, who advised the rescue team.
Okene was strapped into scuba gear and then led to a diving bell that took him back to the surface, where he spent two days in a decompression chamber.
“To survive at this depth for so long is phenomenal. “Typically, as part of a recreational activity, you don’t dive at these depths for more than 20 minutes,” said a training advisor for the Professional Association of Diving Instructors.
Then Okene had to learn the terrible news: all crew members had perished.
“They told me everyone else was dead and I cried because I thought I was the only one trapped in the boat,” he said.