Blaine's stunt a No-Go.

Did anyone watch blain blow it last night… very intense.

heres the run down if not.link

Mmmm, that’s good schadenfreude!

From the article:

Being underwater for two days causes liver failure? Why?

Cool stunt though, even if it didn’t work out.

So much for the claim that he’d either hold his breath for 9 minutes…or die trying!

I hate publicity stunts such as this.

I just hate Blaine.

Publicity stunt? Doing endurance stuff like this isn’t a publicity stunt for Blaine anymore then a famous juggler making a TV spot of himself juggling is a publicity stunt. It’s his act. And the over the top “do or die trying” talk is pretty par for the course amonst magicians and escapists. I’m sure Houdini had the same sort of stuff on his posters back in the 20’s.

You can find another thread about this here.

IANAMD, but I don’t think you can conclude that it was being submerged that caused the liver failure. Although the other health effects of weightlessness may have exacerbating a pre-existing liver condition.

Could be, but from reading your link it seems a lot of the downside to being weightless is from not having gravity tugging on your internal fluids (blood, inner ear stuff, etc), which I wouldn’t think would be an issue from being submerged on Earth. The other problems, deteration of bone and muscle from lack of work, etc. while they might be an issue from being submerged over a long period, seem like they would take a lot longer then 2 days to manifest.

Also almost all of the problems listed in that link say they are results of prolonged exposure, which I would take to mean at least a week+.

Yes, but Houdini had the good grace to actually die trying.

I’m waiting for Blaine to re-enact Houdini’s last trick: peritonitis and all.

His last trick was appendicitis?

Since the other thread on this topic has more responses (way more), I’m closing this one and suggesting you post there: (“David Blaine: Drowned Alive”)