Diver Rescues Man Trapped In Sunken Ship for Three Days
The incredible story of Harrison Okene's underwater survival made headlines back in June, but the equally incredible footage of his rescue has just now surfaced.
Okene, the sole survivor of a capsized tugboat that sank into freezing waters off the coast of Nigeria back in May, spent nearly three days in a dark, dank air pocket subsisting on Coca Cola until he was rescued by a diver searching for the bodies of his shipmates.
"All around me was just black, and noisy," recalled 29-year-old Okene, the Jacson-4's cook. "I was crying and calling on Jesus to rescue me, I prayed so hard. I was so hungry and thirsty and cold and I was just praying to see some kind of light."
After 60 hours in a 4ft sq. air pocket 100 feet underwater, Okene was discovered unexpectedly alive by a South African diver on a body recovery mission (around the 5:35 mark in the video above).
But it wasn't a happy ending just yet.
Okene had taken in a potentially lethal dose of nitrogen, which meant that his heart would not be able to function properly back on land.
For the next two days, doctors monitored Okene closely as he sat in a decompression chamber.
All told, some 11 crew members lost their lives aboard the Jascon-4.
"They told me all the others had died and I cried because I thought I was the only one who had been trapped in the boat," said Okene.
