The terrifying moment a spear fisher suffers a loss of motor skills and nearly drowns has been caught on camera and shared on social media as a warning for divers.
Footage of the incident, which is believed to have taken place a few months ago, shows Bahamian Spanish free diver Daniel Mullings starting to show symptoms that his dive had been compromised.
Mr Mullings' brother Alexandro filmed the incident and explained how his quick ascent to the water's surface almost claimed his life in a post on Instagram.
"Things could have went really badly due to his LMC [loss of motor control]. What hurt even more is the feelings of guilt that later ensued after watching the clip - you can clearly see where his body starts to shut down but I wasn't able to pick up on it," he wrote.
"I knew he'd compromised his dive - that's why I started my ascent very rapidly as he left the bottom.
"To my surprise he shoved me off when I tried to grab his fish, so this made me feel like he was really OK up until I saw his funny body motion, and I signalled to him to slow down with his kicks and told him to calm down as he surfaced."
However, the moment he surfaced it became very clear that Mr Mullings was not OK - he immediately dropped his head back into the water and started sinking, with his eyes staring absently upwards.
Alexandro pulled him back up to the surface, before taking off his brother's mask and shouting "Breathe! Breathe, Danny!" repeatedly.
Luckily Mr Mullings came to soon after, and is heard responding to his brother's requests for him to breathe - but Alexandro says the incident terrified him.
"[It's my] first experience with one of these - it took me a day to get back in the water after the incident, but it took me months to get over the fear that this instilled in me," he said.
"After this whole incident my whole life has changed, the way in which I look at life and the way that I dive. Take a course - don't let it catch you off guard like it did me."
Newshub.
