THE THAI CAVE RESCUE
Truly the rescue of the twelve soccer boys and their coach from the cave
in Thailand is one of the world’s greatest rescues in history. It had millions of people on edge as they got
the daily reports of the attempts and finally the successful rescue of these
boys and their coach.
It had been more than two weeks since the young boys Thailand
soccer team and its soccer coach became trapped inside a cave they were
exploring in northern Thailand. The country’s annual monsoons flooded the cave
while they were still inside that subsequently prompted a massive search and
rescue effort. There had been no contact with the boys,
since they went missing with their 25-year-old coach two weeks earlier.
Rescuers
eventually found their bicycles, football boots and backpacks near the cave and
discovered handprints and footprints further in. Police Chief Komsan Saardluan told Sky News that parts of the
cave get flooded to a height of up to 16 feet during the rainy season, which
runs from June to October. A sign outside the site warns visitors not to
enter the cave during the rainy season between July and November.
The families upon learning
that the boys were in the cave, flocked to the cave and sat and waited as
rescuers battled heavy rains to search the flooded system of caves where the
group was thought to be trapped.
The cave has an impressive entrance chamber
that is about 260 feet long and leads to an easy walk along spacious
passageways that last for about a half a mile. The chamber the group was in is about 2.5 miles from the entrance of the
cave, which is thought to be about 10 miles long and cut into a mountainside in
far northern Thailand near the border with Myanmar. Much of the cave is a string of narrow passageways that lead to
wide chambers and then back to narrow passageways. The rocky and muddy ground
makes several changes in elevation along the way. At ten
kilometres in length, the Tham Luang cave is one of Thailand’s longest and one
of the toughest cave to navigate with its snaking chambers and narrow
passageways. Normally, no one would go that far into the cave during the rainy
season as it floods many of the tunnels. When the boys and their coach went
through the cave’s tunnels, they were dry. But when a rain storm occurred while
they were deep in the cave, the tunnels filled up with water. They were
subsequently trapped deep inside the cave.
The coach of the youth soccer team who led them into the
flooded cave in Thailand reportedly did it as part of an initiation ritual,
according to a rescuer. The boys had left their backpacks and shoes outside the
cave and then the boys waded into the cave and tried to make it to the end of
the tunnel which they considered the ritual as a initiation for local young boys to write their
names on the wall and then make it back to their backpacks and shoes.
Police refused to answer questions on whether the 25-year-old coach should be charged for leading the children into the cave, the Khaosod English paper reports. Lawyer Ananchai Chaiyadech said it’s likely the coach will escape charges as it appeared he didn’t have intent to put the boys in danger as it hadn’t started raining when he led them inside. When the group initially went into the cave, they noticed high water but their coach foolishly didn’t think anything of it. That was a stupid conclusion on his part especially since the rainy season had just begun.
Previously,
on the way out of the cave, four cavers found a 20-foot-long passage that
sloped at a 45-degree angle. The passage was filled with water Three of the
cavers managed to leave the cave but the fourth member, a novice caver, became
stuck in the passage and was immersed in cold water for a minute or two. The
fifth member of the group managed to free his friend from the passage, but they
couldn’t leave with the water rising. They ended up staying down in the cave
for 14 hours until the water receded, and they made it out of the cave
themselves although rescuers were
standing by. Moving about in caves with narrow passages is very risky to say
the least
Efforts to rescue the stranded soccer team was tense as officials were in a race with the approaching heavy rains and depleting oxygen levels inside the cave. Workers labored around the clock to pump water out of the cave.
The twelve young members of a
youth soccer team and their 25-year-old assistant coach entered Thailand's Tham
Luang Nang Non cave on June 23 after a practice match. They were cut off from
exiting the massive cave when a rainstorm flooded the exit.
The 25-year-old soccer coach led his youth team
into the Thai cave complex where the group was stuck for more than two weeks. He is a former Buddhist monk who's cheated
death at least once before. Ekapol Chantawong, affectionately known as “Ake,”
was trapped with the team of 12 boys whose ages ranged from 11 to 16 years
of age.
David Spiegel, a professor of
psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University’s medical school
said, “Adolescents are especially social creatures, and having friends with them
as well as their coach would be a tremendous help,” Imagine if you will how
difficult it would be for you if you were trapped in a cave all alone.
A Calgary-based
explorer who was trapped in a partly flooded cave for days says her heart goes
out to the members of a boys' soccer team as they await rescue from an
underground cavern in Thailand.
If safety concerns forced the
boys to stay in the cave for an extended period of time, it would be important
for their mental health for there to be organization and daily routines rather
than do nothing. They could do exercises and mind games. Of course, later, there
was a telephone line brought to them so they could talk with their parents,
siblings and friends.
There would have
to be daily hygiene routines, regular meal times, age-appropriate cognitive
activities, regular physical exercise to the extent feasible in limited space,
religious/spiritual practices, and specific times for daily briefings on their
situation and for communicating with their families.
On July 2nd, British divers located the missing team two weeks after they had disappeared. At the time the boys were found, water levels in the cave were rising
more than 15 centimetres every hour.
More monsoon rains wereon the way. After a break in the
weather in recent days, the Thai Meteorological Department forecast for Chiang
Rai calls for light rain followed by heavy rain starting and continuing through
July 10. Such storms could raise water levels in the cave again and complicate
the supply missions or any potential extrication, if one was needed. Interior
Minister Anupong Paojinda said as a result of the forecast, the boys may need
to swim out using diving gear. He said they would be brought out via the same
complicated route through which their rescuers entered.
Emergency services attempted to pump water out of the cave
complex after the rain flooded the caves and the passages that link them to the
boys and their coach.
A team of Thai Royal Navy SEAL divers, who re-entered the
cave complex earlier hadn't found any trace of the boys or their coach.
Deputy Prime Minister
Prawit Wongsuwan said that the government had not ruled out hope of finding the
boys and the coach alive. He said, "We are still optimistic they are all
alive. Even though they may not have anything to eat, they should have water to
drink."
People can go for a limited time without food or water, but the
temperature around them can have an effect on their chances of survival. But several boys were reportedly suffering from malnutrition
after going without food for 10 days.
For people
trapped in the wild in general, dehydration is a quick killer because people
generally can't go longer than a few days without water. Depending on the
conditions, someone might be able to survive for up to a week if it's not too hot and they're in the shade.
But most people would have a hard time surviving longer than 100 hours or so.
Presumably,
the team drank the rainwater that was flooding the caves. This carried risks as
well. If they were to pick up an infection from the water that caused diarrhea,
that could kill them faster however, it was likely the only option they had in
order to survive.
Food is
another issue. Experts believe that healthy adults can survive four to six weeks without eating before starving
to death. But each individual is different: People with more body fat who are
in temperate conditions and have adequate hydration could potentially survive
longer. When rescuers were still searching for the boys, the Chiang Rai governor told reporters they thought most people could survive 3o days
without food. If the boys were thin, their survival rate could be less. But young boys might not have the same energy reserves as
adults. Luckily, the boys had been brought energy gels, pork, sticky rice,
milk, and more to help them build up their strength.
Vernon Unsworth, a
spelunker (someone who explores caves) who lives in Chiang Rai, said that the
conditions in the cave are difficult to deal with.
He also
said, "The water is rising all the time. Physically it's not a hard cave;
it's just very long," he told CNN from the rescue site.
"I think we just have
to wait for the navy SEALs to see what they can do and how far they can go into
the cave. The conditions further on will not be easy so we just have to wait
and keep our fingers crossed."
He said that a big pool of
water was continually rising in a section of the cave about 3 kilometers (1.7
miles) from the entrance. He also said that the next six to eight hours would be
crucial.
Mr. Kotcha of the national
parks authority said that there was around 40 chambers inside the Tham Luang
Nang Non cave—both small and big ones. Rescuers suspected that the missing boys
were still in the main chamber of the cave.
Thai Interior Minister
General, Anupong Paochinda said that the divers could only work intermittently
due to the restrictions of their equipment. He said the rescue team was trying
to reduce the water level to prevent it from "reaching the ceiling of the
passage" so that there would be an air pocket for the rescuers.
He also said, "The
water is muddy; it has also still blocked the passage into the chamber.” The
SEALs had switched to a oxygen tank with a
closed-circuit system, which allowed them to dive up to three hours at a
time. Arrangements for more water pumps and electricity cable to drain water
were brought to the cave.
A total of 19 divers assisted with the rescue operations,
some coming from other countries.
The
twelve boys and their football coach trapped in a flooded cave for nine days. To get the boys out, divers had to guide each of them
while diving through the cave’s dark, tight and twisting passages.
By all accounts, the
dives into the cave have been a challenge even for experts in caving and diving
who needed days to reach the boys. Getting the boys out could go faster due to
the installation of dive lines, extra oxygen tanks left along the way and glow
sticks lighting the path. Still, the British Cave Rescue Council said,
"Any attempt to dive the boys and their coach out will not be taken
lightly because there are significant technical challenges and risks to
consider.
The
massive rescue effort had for days been hampered by heavy rains that flooded
the Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand, blocking access to chambers where it
was hoped the group would be found alive.
Divers
took advantage of a brief window of good weather to edge further into the cave,
with the water levels dropping slowly but steadily every hour thanks to
round-the-clock pumping.
They
had hoped to find the boys and their coach earlier on another ledge but they
had retreated 300-400 metres further as that ledge was submerged,
When
Chiang Rai, the provincial governor broke the news of their discovery, it
delighted the Thai nation which had anxiously followed every twist and turn of
the dramatic effort to save them. the boys and their coach.
The group was found about three miles from the cave entrance
by two British divers who were both experts on cave rescues.
“We
found all thirteen of them all safe we will take care of them until they can be
moved from the cave.” move,” Narongsak Osottanakorn told reporters, who broke
into spontaneous applause and cheering. “We will bring food to them and a
doctor who can dive. I am not sure they can eat as they have not eaten for a
while.”
Their skinny faces illuminated by a
flashlight, the Thai soccer teammates stranded more than a week in
a partly flooded cave said they were healthy on a video released as heavy rains
forecast for later that week could complicate plans to safely extract them. Meanwhile, the boys and their
coach were given food and medicine.
In
addition to food and medical supplies, the boys had been given access to
telephone lines so that they could talk to their families. They were also
treated for cuts and each of the 13 were given a sheet of tin-foil to keep them
warm. Dr Harris, from Adelaide in Australia, has
decades of diving experience. He was the one who examined the boys in the cave
and gave the green light so the rescue operation could go ahead Had the boys been too weak, a
rescue attempt by diving out would have been too dangerous for them.
According to media reports, Dr. Harris has taken part in cave
diving explorations in Australia, China, Christmas Island and New Zealand. A
anaesthetist by training, he has also been specialising in expedition medicine
and retrieval operations.
For the
time being though, the focus remained on building up the boys’ strength so that
they could make the journey out. Aphakorn said. “We don’t have to rush. We
are trying to take care of them and make them strong. Then the boys will come
out to see you guys,”
Loved
ones, friends and teachers of the “Wild Boar” football team refused to give up
hope of seeing the young players again, holding an increasingly desperate vigil
at the cave entrance. Thailand had been a nation transfixed by the plight of
the “Wild Boar” team, with social media lighting up in support of the group and
the country’s deeply spiritual reflexes stirred into action. Shamans and
Buddhist monks have held prayers and given offerings at the cave imploring
mountain “spirits” to return the boys safely.
The diving
team’s travails appeared far from over with a complex operation predicted to
try to bring the group several kilometres through the cave which was still
partially submerged.
If it
was too difficult at that time of the year to being them out of the cave, the
authorities would then supply the group with four months’ worth of food and
also begin teaching the boys how to scuba dive. The reference to four months
most likely meant that the authorities were considering waiting until the rainy
season ended in October to begin the rescue.
Learning
how to scuba dive is easy. I know. I was taught how to scuba drive in a large
swimming pool. I felt at ease. However, I was an adult then. For young boys to
be taught scuba diving and then swimming in a narrow dark tunnel is something
quite different.
Psychologically, it's a very tall task for a
child to swim under water in a very hostile environment. It's even more
confronting for the boys that can't even swim and if they panic, it could
potentially put their lives and the lives of rescuers at risk.
Although
water levels in the cave had dropped a bit, the diving conditions remained
difficult and any attempt to dive in the submerged tunnels the boys and their
coach would be doing could not be taken lightly because there are significant
technical challenges and risks to consider.
While diving may be the group’s best hope for
escape, it was still a very dangerous option. And the kind of diving these boys
would have to learn to do was not the kind of diving most people are familiar
with. For boys in a weakened state, who were unlikely to have ever
dived before, the evacuation would obviously pose significant risks to them and
their rescuers. Trying to take non-divers through a cave is one of the most
dangerous situations possible, even if the dives are relatively easy. And
taking them underwater can be very scary for anyone, be they trained of not
trained especially if it is hard to see anything. That is why the boys would be
towed by their rescuers.
It will
be diving in what is effectively muddy water, possibly fast-flowing, with no
sense of direction. The boys wouldn’t be able to tell what’s up, down or
sideways while in the dark.
To
prepare for any type of diving rescue, the boys would have to be assessed for
hydration, adequate fuel supply, adequate food so that their glucose level is
adequate, and would also have to have practice dives as well.
Scores
of divers — including foreign experts — had been sent into the cave with hundreds
of oxygen tanks, establishing a base camp inside the chambers over the weekend.
Thai Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda
considered the possibility that the boys and their coach might have to dive out
of the cave under water before bad weather sets in later in the week. That
would mean that the boys and their coach would have to be trained in the use of
diving equipment.
The divers rescuing the kids have a few
options before them. They could use full-face masks, they could use a mask and
a separate breathing apparatus, or they could even use helmets with air
supplied from the surface. The latter would be difficult because if the hoses
got jammed, the boys would be trapped.
The rescue divers would really take
control over everything, so as long as they had an air supply, the rescue
divers could even literally tow ach of them along the passageways. Experienced divers were wary of
taking out the boys through the dark and dangerous waters in the cave,
especially since the boys and their coach
were not fully trained in underwater diving.
But how much air supply they need was
another question. The boys and their coach had travelled about two kilometres
into the cave and to breathe for that long, they would need more than just two
or three cylinders. The
rescuers were going to have to place staging cylinders on various ledges that
weren’t submerged in order for the boys and their coach including their
rescuers to swim under water the distance in order to reach the entrance of the
cave safely.
The
alternative was that the
boys and their coach could spend three months down in the cave, with divers
supplying them with food and comfort items until the weather dries up the
passageways. That alternative was not
satisfactory to anyone involved in this drama since Thailand’s rainy season can
last up until to October.
The governor said the 13 may not
be extracted at the same time, depending on their condition. They've practiced
wearing diving masks and breathing, in preparation for the diving possibility.
Even if they couldn’t swim, a rescue diver was able to guide
them along," said Dr. Eric Lavonas, an emergency physician and trained
diving medicine specialist. The divers had lights. Obviously, these were young
boys and they were terrified.
Each rescue diver took one child and would almost certainly
would have use a harness to keep a grip on the child whose regulator, a breathing device, would
most likely be attached to the tank worn by the rescue diver.
One serious concern is the possibility that the boys could be
at risk for decompression sickness, or the bends, if the air they have been
breathing in the cave has been under pressure from the rising water.
One serious concern is the possibility that the boys could be
at risk for decompression sickness, or the bends, if the air they have been
breathing in the cave has been under pressure from the rising water.
Eight of the 12 boys trapped with their soccer coach in a
labyrinthine flooded cave complex in northern Thailand had been freed,
authorities adding that the time for rescuing the others would depend on the
weather. Those who were free from the cave obviously were very happy and even in good health. Once outside the cave, they
had asked for “khao pad grapao—a Thai dish of meat fried with chili and basil
and served over rice. They got what they asked for. As an aside, when my wife
and I were in Thailand in 2000, we also ordered the same meal. Soon after, the remaining boys and their coach was free from the cave.
Thailand’s Department of Mental Health said hospitals had
been making preparations to care for the boys’ and would monitor them until
their mental health is fully regained. They were also working with the families
to prepare them on how to interact with the boys once they get out, such as not
asking them for details about what they endured. Some events in our lives are
best forgotten.
Their re-entry into the world outside the
cave was predictably be one of massive
attention from family, friends and the media. It could be overwhelming. However, the world soon loses interest in
rescue stories and moves on to the next story. For this reason, it is extremely
important that these survivors and their rescuers not be forgotten and the boys
be closely monitored so that they can receive the best possible support that
they will need in order to cope with the notoriety of their adventure.
One
of the Thai navy divers, Petty Officer Saman Gunan,
age 39, was
working as part of the effort to rescue the 12 boys and their soccer coach. He was
trapped in a flooded tunnel and died from lack of oxygen. The dead diver was a former Thai SEAL and was
working in a volunteer capacity. He died during an overnight mission in which
he was placing oxygen canisters in various locations. I am sure that the boys,
their coach and their families will not forget the sacrifice that the deceased
diver gave to save the members of the soccer team. This underscores the risks of extracting the boys
and their coach from the depths of the cave.
The boys told the rescue teams, including expert
diver Claus Rasmussen, that during their nine days trapped in the
cave, they had heard dogs barking, roosters crowing and children playing. Our
minds can play tricks on us when we are under stress.
While the boys were in the cave, they asked a Navy SEAL for World Cup soccer results and
updates. There was an offer for them to
be taken to the final gam e, all expenses for them and their families.
Unfortunately, they had to remain in the hospital for further treatment so they
missed the opportunity.
Numerous Thai special forces were part of the rescue efforts.
Most notable was doctor Pak Loharnshoon and three yet-to-be-named divers who
volunteered to stay by the boys' side after they were found underground.
Hundreds of officials from more than 20 government agencies,
along with private companies, were involved in the search. Rescuers came from
at least six countries. One came from British Columbia, a province of Canada.
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