A Georgia bachelor party turned tragic after one of the attendees drowned while trying to see how long he could hold his breath, The Macon Telegraph is reporting.
A group of about 15 men were enjoying a bachelor party at Lake Sinclair, about 30 or so miles southeast of Atlanta. One of those men was 23-year-old Robert Bunsa, who had come down to Georgia from New Jersey for the party.
At some point during the festivities, the men decided to have a contest to see who could hold their breath the longest, taking a big gulp of air and submerging themselves under the surface of the murky lake.
When it was Busna’s turn, he went under the water, and then didn’t come back up, according to Baldwin County sheriff’s Capt. Brad King.
“According to the [police] report, he was trying to see how long he could hold his breath.”
When Busna didn’t resurface, his friends figured maybe he had swam away and gone back into the house where they’d been partying (the water is murky and visibility that day was limited to less than one foot). He wasn’t there, says King.
“He was missing for some time — over seven minutes, at least, before they realized, and one of the friends did dive down and pull him out.”
Man drowns while seeing how long he could hold his breath at Lake Sinclair https://t.co/ZJH6awTn5T pic.twitter.com/RVLVX1FQfN
— 13WMAZ News (@13wmaznews) August 6, 2018
Police believe the New Jersey man had drowned in about five to 10 feet of water.
A nearby police officer was dispatched to the scene. He performed CPR on the man for 10 to 15 minutes before an ambulance arrived. Meanwhile, a helicopter was dispatched to the scene to airlift the man to the hospital, but it was too late. Busna was pronounced dead at the scene at 7:20 p.m.
Georgia Department of Natural Resources Cpl. Lynn Stanford warned everyone to be extra cautious around water, be it at a lake, in a river, in the ocean, or in a swimming pool.
“Respect the water. It can go wrong so quickly.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control , holding your breath under water is rarely a good idea, unless you’re a trained swimmer or diver. After a certain amount of time, you could pass out from lack of oxygen — that’s called “hypoxic blackout” — and accidentally drown.
According to Deadspin , normal humans — that is, those who aren’t swimmers, divers, or otherwise specifically trained to have larger lung capacity and/or go without fresh oxygen for long periods of time — can only hold their breath for about five minutes before passing out.
