On the last day of a weeklong endurance challenge inside a Manhattan aquarium, David Blaine faced one final feat: holding his breath for nearly nine minutes while freeing himself from heavy chains and handcuffs.
But the supreme illusionist was defeated in his quest, rescued out of his water-filled sphere after failing to hold his breath.
Two divers jumped into the bubble about seven minutes after Blaine took his last breath to pull him out in front of spectators in the plaza of the Lincoln Centre in the United States.
Blaine, 33, had spent seven days submerged in the sphere breathing and eating through tubes.
"He is pushing his body insanely to the limits," said Dr Murat Gunel, who headed Blaine's medical team.
Gunel, an associate professor of neurosurgery at Yale University School of Medicine, and other medical experts, had monitored the 33-year-old illusionist's condition 24 hours a day.
Gunel said the challenge had caused liver damage, sharp pains in Blaine's feet and hands, some loss of sensation and rashes all over his body.
Blaine planned to put on chains and handcuffs, remove his oxygen tube and then escape while holding his breath longer than the record of eight minutes, 58 seconds. The finale was to air live in a two hour television special in the United States.
Kirk Krack, the magician's trainer and diving expert, said if there were any signs that Blaine was becoming unconscious, divers would immediately jump into the tank, free him from the chains and bring him to the surface.
Blaine started training in December, with some help from US Navy SEALS. He lost 22 kg so his body would require less oxygen.
As early as the second day of his challenge, Gunel said, there was evidence that Blaine was suffering liver failure; the medical team consulted with medical experts at NASA before stabilising his condition.
Blaine's underwater environment is similar to the weightlessness experienced by astronauts in outer space, he said.
"I told him he needed to get out of the water, and he refused me," said Gunel. "He said he did not want to let the people down."
Gunel said Blaine had agreed to allow researchers at Yale to examine him after the stunt to see what they could learn about how the body responds to an underwater environment.
Blaine's previous feats included balancing on a 56 cm circular platform atop a 30 metre pole for 35 hours; being buried alive in a see-through coffin for a week; and surviving inside a massive block of ice for 61 hours, all of which were performed in New York. In 2003, he fasted for 44 days in a suspended acrylic box over the River Thames in London.
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