An adrenaline junkie is lucky to be alive after his bungee jump went disastrously awry.
The bungee cord snapped after the man, identified as Mike from Hong Kong, leaped from a 30-meter-high podium at the Changthai Thappraya Safari and Adventure Park in Pattaya, Thailand, last month.
Mike, who was on vacation with friends, smashed into the water from a five-meter height. He blacked out but soon came around. Staff helped him out of the lake, reported The Straits Times.
“It was really high so I closed my eyes. I planned to open my eyes again when I bounced back up,” the man told CNN, which shared the video online Wednesday.
“I realized the cord had snapped when I opened my eyes and I was surrounded by water,” he recalled. “I landed on my left side so the injuries were more serious there. It was as if someone just beat me up real bad.”
Mike returned to Hong Kong and was hospitalized with a lung infection, which he said was likely caused by ingesting the dirty water in the lake into which he had unexpectedly plunged.
The park refunded his entrance ticket and covered the cost of his immediate medical care in Thailand, Yahoo News Australia reported. His travel insurance covered the rest. Mike is now filing a complaint against the park.
Bungee jump operator Natthaphon Yokcharoen apologized, telling The Straits Times: “Thappraya Safari has been open for seven years and nothing like this has ever happened. All of our equipment is licensed. I would like to apologise for this incident.”
