Ross Kemp has spoken out about his terrible experience with ‘Christmas tree lungs,’ which left him scared for his life.
In the second season of Sky’s Deep Sea Treasure Hunter, the 58-year-old former EastEnders star is back diving and researching shipwrecks, including the location of the Mary Rose.
However, the Bridge of Lies presenter, who recently admitted that his return to acting was more scary than previous underwater adventures, stated that he was rattled up following an encounter off the UK coast.
Ross and marine archaeologist Mallory Haas were diving in Plymouth Sounds when they discovered a piece of lead plate, suggesting a shipwreck location.
The joy of the finding drove Ross and the expert to dig up the find, which needed more work than they had anticipated.
‘We thought it would be like getting a tree stump out of the back garden, but we’re not in a back garden. We’re actually 17 to 18 meters down in Plymouth Sounds,’ Ross explained.
Their masks filled up with more carbon dioxide than was safe, with Ross admitting: ‘Had we not been so excited we could have just flushed our masks and maybe got rid of the CO2.’
The Birds of Feather actor continued: ‘We started breathing it in and you’re just not aware of it. It’s not like you’re breathing in a car exhaust: you can’t see it and you can’t smell it because it’s your own CO2.
‘So Mallory blacked out slightly first and then I sort of blacked out for a second.’
Fortunately, the diving professionals assisted Mallory and Ross in safely resurfacing, but he claimed he felt ‘out of it’ once out of the water.
He explained: ‘I felt like I had a really bad headache and I felt out of it – like I’d had too much to drink. Once I got back out on the boat the headache went but your lungs feel like Christmas trees because it’s been starved of oxygen.
‘Suddenly it opens up vessels inside your lungs and it feels like you can feel every bit of your lung.’
Ross explained after the terrifying dive he returned to his hotel room and ‘lay on the bed, looking up at the ceiling for five hours, too scared to go to sleep.’
‘I told the assistant and camera operator to keep ringing me every hour as I was just worried that I might not wake up again, I don’t know.’
He insisted, though, that he was ‘totally OK’ and didn’t take long to return to the water.
‘You’re working in a hostile environment things are gonna go wrong because that’s the way it is and that’s why you do such exhaustive training,’ Ross noted.
Deep Sea Treasure Hunter airs Mondays at 9pm on Sky History.
Source My Celebrity Life.