14 DAY TRIAL // There is little denying that the story of how Harrison Okene managed to survive two days under the sea by getting trapped inside an air bubble would make for a very exciting episode in the “I Shouldn't Be Alive” series.
The 29-year-old Nigerian cook found himself below sea level after the tugboat he was working on capsized in the Atlantic, not far from Nigeria's coastline.
12 people were aboard the tugboat when it capsized. Of these, 10 died and one is still missing. Odds are he will not be found alive either, Mirror reports.
Otherwise put, Harrison Okene might just be the sole survivor of this incident.
The same source informs us that, when the tugboat turned topsy-turvy, the Nigerian Cook somehow got caught in an air bubble that formed inside a small toilet and the bedroom next to it.
The air bubble was just 4 feet (1.21 meters) high, so Harrison's body was submerged in water.
However, the air trapped inside this small space was enough to keep the Nigerian Cook alive for about 60 hours, until the divers managed to locate and rescue him.
After he was pulled out of the tugboat, Harrison Okene was asked to spend another 60 hours inside a decompression chamber. The chamber helped regulate his body pressure.
“I was there in the water in total darkness just thinking it’s the end. I kept thinking the water was going to fill up the room but it did not,” the cook reportedly told the press shortly after he had been brought back to surface by the divers.
“I was so hungry but mostly so, so thirsty. The salt water took the skin off my tongue,” he went on to say.
By the looks of it, the 60 hours he got to spend soaking in salt water caused the Nigerian cook's skin to start peeling away. However, doctors say that the situation is well under control.