Budimir Šobat Buda is the father of a girl named Saša who struggles with autism. Just for her, in three weeks, he will attempt to break the Guinness World Record of 24:03 minutes in static apnea at the Zagreb Fair. Buda is 52 years old and with the help and support of the diving club Nemo Adria, which organizes the action “Look into Blue,” he aims to raise awareness about autism, writes Jutarnji.
– I want them to say at the Autism Center where Saša goes: her dad dived for her and all the children with autism, said Buda.
After 18 minutes underwater, Buda experiences body contractions, his abdominal muscles cramping uncontrollably. In those moments, Buda focuses on those contractions and counts them. This is how he remains conscious. Recently, he counted 128 contractions, while an untrained person can barely endure ten.
While a person is diving, the balance of oxygen and CO2 in the body is disrupted, approaching a situation where he will lose consciousness, when everything goes black and drifts away. Every dive means subjecting the brain to a loss of oxygen. Before the dive, Buda will inhale pure oxygen from a tank, as required by the competition. Raising awareness about autism
Buda’s daughter Saša, who is 17 years old, was born with severe diagnoses, and doctors predicted that due to motor problems, she would spend her life in a wheelchair. She was diagnosed with cerebral palsy. Buda did not accept this and did everything to get closer to her world. They practiced together just to move her body and get it used to movement, and he succeeded. With the help of his wife Sandra, Buda practiced every day for 4 to 5 hours.
– We finished with motor skills, now we are fighting autism and continue to train every day, but a little differently. She can never tell me I can’t, it hurts, it’s not my day, and I still push, says Buda, explaining that because of this, he has no regard or empathy for himself when training to break the Guinness World Record.
