Aahana Swrup
The incredible real-life story of Chris Lemons’ narrow escape from death comes to the screen in the Alex Parkinson adventure film ‘Last Breath.’ It follows the deep-sea diver and his crewmates, Duncan Allcock and David Yuasa, who traverse into the ocean’s depths on a routine maintenance check. While Duncan remains in the diving bell, overlooking his colleagues’ dives, an unforeseen dysfunction compels Chris’ connecting tether to snap. As a result, the diver is separated from his crew, without communication, heat, or even oxygen.
Still, as the situation grows adverse with each passing minute, David and Duncan—along with the crew on the ship on the ocean’s surface—fight to bring back their lost companion. As the film depicts, Chris Lemons underwent an extraordinary experience and came out on the other side without any enduring scratches. Today, his life continues to be a source of much fascination.
Chris Lemons’ Near-Death Experience Inspired Him to Seize Every Day
In 2012, Chris Lemons underwent an overwhelming experience while on rotation as a saturation diver for Bibby Offshore. He was on a three-man crew with Duncan Allcock and David Yuasa, all set to do a run-off-the-mill repair on some gas pipe at the Huntington Oil Field in Aberdeenshire in the North Sea. While hundreds of meters in the ocean, an accident with the dynamic positioning system of the Bibby Topaz ship led to the vessel’s displacement on the ocean’s surface. This put pressure on Lemons’ umbilical cable, which was connected to the Bibby Topaz tethered diving bell. As a result, after the diver effectively became an inadvertent anchor of sorts, it was only a matter of time before his cord snapped.
From here, Lemons only had access to an emergency breathing gas supply and was hurled down to the ocean bed. With only a few minutes of gas left, he managed to climb up to the top of the underwater structure. Nonetheless, the diving bell had drifted away with the Bibby Topaz, leaving the diver alone. Still, Allcock, Yuasa, and the rest of the crew returned for him, even if only to recover the body. Remarkably, after Yuasa, the other diver, found him, pulled him back into the diving bell, and Allcock gave him CPR—Lemons woke up. Despite being without oxygen for an estimated amount of 29 minutes, the diver was alright without any concerning injuries—either physically or mentally.
Later, when Lemons spoke about his experience with BBC, he said, “I assumed it was the extreme cold of the water that slowed my functions down. But the gas we breathe has a high concentration of oxygen which saturated my tissues and cells to allow me to survive.” Still, medical professionals can’t give a definitive explanation for his survival. In the aftermath, Lemons didn’t undergo any profound epiphany or unlock an inclination toward spirituality.
Even so, the diver has developed a more acute awareness of death, which has made him more appreciative of the fragility of life on Earth. “I am not religious, so I think death is a finite thing, and I am comfortable with that,” Lemons told The Book of Role Models. “It doesn’t mean I want it to happen, but I know it is going to. More than anything, this tells me I need to take advantage of every second I have on this amazing, beautiful planet we live on.”
Chris Lemons is a Public Speaker and a Diving Supervisor Today
Even after experiencing the dangers of deep-sea diving firsthand, Chris Lemons wasn’t deterred by the industry. As such, he and his crew—Duncan Allcock and David Yuasa—went back into the ocean three weeks later as soon as Lemons was medically cleared. Since then, the diver has stated that his worry over his job influenced some of this decision. He began professionally diving in his early 20s as a summer job. It inevitably became his primary career after sticking with the profession for years. Consequently, years after the 2012 incident, he continued working as a deep-sea diver, mostly in the oil and gas industry.
After Bibby Offshore, Lemons went on to work as a saturation diver for Boskalis Subsea Services in 2019. Still, he always aspired to get involved with the safety aspect of diving. Today, he has fulfilled this aspiration. In 2023, he stopped diving and moved on to a supervisory role in the same company. As such, he has taken over the responsibility of instructing divers from above the surface. He still holds on to dreams of taking things one step further by advocating for regulations and risk-mitigation over diving worldwide.
Alternatively, when Lemons isn’t engaged in the diving world, he also tours as a Public Speaker and discusses his miraculous near-death-experience story with people. He has also partnered up with Dr. Christine Currie on Explore Your Depths with Chris Lemons, wherein he offers management seminars, workshop sessions, and Keynote Speaker services to the public. Recently, he spoke at the Apprising 2025 conference at the ODEON Cinemas Group’s Leicester Square. Furthermore, he remains an active participant in the retelling of his story by participating in both Alex Parkinson’s documentary and film, ‘Last Breath.’ In February 2025, he attended the film’s premiere in New York alongside Allcock and Yuasa.
Chris Lemons Prioritizes His Time With His Family
At the time of the 2012 incident, Chris Lemons was engaged to Morag Martin, whom he went on to marry a few months after his near-death escape. In the years that followed, the couple welcomed two kids into the world. Meanwhile, Lemons continued to work as a deep-sea diver. Despite the dangers of the job, he enjoyed the unconventional working hours and how they allowed him the ability to be an involved father in the lives of his daughters. Now, years later, he continues to be a dedicated husband and father. Nonetheless, unlike his professional life, he likes to keep his private life under wraps, staying away from any regularly updated public social media accounts. As the last known reports suggest, Chris Lemons currently lives in the South of France with his loving family.
