“the deepest man on the earth” gets into big trouble after making the unbreakable record

Will Do Anything

However, he was not going to give up so easily. He said, “Despite the slow progress and initial depression, I kept my motivation alive and made the decision to do anything to bring my life back to what it used to be. I started a strict regime of superfoods, healthy living, exercise and listening to my own intuition (even if this often meant disregarding well-meaning advice from doctors and experts).”

Setting Limits

What did he do then? “I adopted the same attitude that I always used with freediving: pushing boundaries, further exploring the human potential and setting new limits where we thought we already knew everything.”

Doing Something Different

He admitted, “Against the advice of doctors, family and friends, I discharged myself from the long-term care facility after five months. Taking my health back into my own hands was the best decision of my life. By using the same approach as I had always done with freediving, and by believing that our bodies are indeed amazing, I let the wheelchair rust.”

Back-Up

Nitsch later revealed much detail about that fatal incident, “The original plan was that I would slow down the sled between 100 and 70 meters below the surface on the way back up, and have a one minute decompression stop at approximately 10 meters depth.”

As Programmed

He continued, “Because of the blackout due to narcosis (at approximately 100 meters below the surface), I was not able to slow down the sled, and thus it continued on to 10 meters where it stopped as programmed. Fortunately, the safety divers brought me right away to the surface.”

That’s It

He further stated, “Prior to reaching the surface, I did regain consciousness and had the clarity of mind to ask for oxygen, to descend back to about 10 meters for about 20 minutes thus avoiding some impact of DCS. Underwater I realized that things were wrong in my head. And once back to the surface I had to be brought with urgency by speedboat to the port of Fira, onward by ambulance plane to the hospital and decompression chamber in Athens.”