ZCZC
BFF-69
THAILAND-CAVE
11 out of Thai cave, hopes rise all will survive
MAE SAI, Thailand, July 10, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Three more people were
rescued from a flooded Thai cave on Tuesday, officials said, bringing to 11
the number saved and raising hopes all members of the young football team who
became trapped 18 days ago would survive.
Two more were still inside the cave but authorities were confident of
getting them out by Tuesday evening through a claustrophobic network of
tunnels that in some places were completely filled with water.
“(They) will be extracted today,” rescue chief Narongsak Osottanakorn
told reporters on Tuesday morning.
The hoped-for final chapter in an ordeal that has gripped the world came
after elite foreign divers and Thai Navy SEALs escorted eight members of the
“Wild Boars” football team out of the Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand on
Sunday and Monday.
Then on Tuesday afternoon multiple sources involved in the operation
said three more had been escorted out. However it was not clear if the 25-
year-old coach was among them or if he remained inside.
The 12 boys, aged from 11 to 16, and their coach, ventured into the cave
on June 23 after football practice and got caught deep inside when heavy
rains caused flooding that trapped them on a muddy ledge.
They spent nine harrowing days trapped in darkness until two British
divers found them.
Authorities then struggled to devise a safe plan to get them out,
mulling ideas such as drilling holes into the mountain or waiting months
until monsoon rains ended and they could walk out.
With oxygen levels in their chamber falling to dangerous levels and
complete flooding of the cave system possible, rescuers pushed ahead with the
least-worst option of having divers escort them out through the extremely
narrow and water-filled tunnels.
The ups and downs of the rescue bid has entranced Thailand and also
fixated a global audience, drawing support from celebrities as varied as US
President Donald Trump, football star Lionel Messi and tech guru Elon Musk.
The emergence of the second batch of four boys on Monday evening was
greeted with a simple “Hooyah” by the SEAL team on their Facebook page, an
exclamation that lit up Thai social media.
Positive medical reports on the rescued group further fuelled the sense
of joy and optimism.
“All eight are in good health, no fever… everyone is in a good mental
state,” Jedsada Chokdamrongsuk, permanent secretary of the public health
ministry, said at Chiang Rai hospital where the boys were recuperating on
Tuesday morning.
However the boys will remain in quarantine until doctors were sure they
had not contracted any infections from inside the cave.
Experts warned that drinking contaminated water or otherwise being
exposed to bird or bat droppings in the cave could lead to dangerous
infections.
But the early signs on the initial eight were promising, with X-rays and
blood tests showing just two had signs of pneumonia and that they were in a
“normal state” after taking antibiotics, Jedsada said.
Some had even asked for “bread and chocolate spread”, he added.
– Final push –
Following a similar pattern as the previous two days, the divers
ventured back into the cave at 10:00am (0700 GMT) on Tuesday, Narongsak told
reporters.
However, unlike Sunday and Monday when only four were brought out each
day due to logistical constraints, rescuers would try to extract all of the
remaining five in one operation, Narongsak said.
A doctor and three SEALS who had stayed with the footballers would also
come out on Tuesday, he added.
The escape route was a challenge for even experienced divers. The boys
had no previous diving experience so the rescuers trained them how to use a
mask and breathe underwater via an oxygen tank.
One fear had been that they would panic while trying to swim underwater,
even with a diver escorting them.
Although there have been no major reported complications during the
initial rescues, the death of a former Thai Navy SEAL diver who ran out of
oxygen in a flooded area of the cave on Friday underscored the dangers of the
journey.
“I cannot understand how cool these small kids are, you know? Thinking
about how they’ve been kept in a small cave for two weeks, they haven’t seen
their mums,” Ivan Karadzic, who runs a diving business in Thailand and has
been involved in the rescue mission, told the BBC.
“Incredibly strong kids. Unbelievable almost.”
BSS/AFP/RY/1655 hrs