Aussie puts great depth of knowledge to vital use

AN AUSTRALIAN doctor with 30 years of cave-diving experience is “essential” to a rescue mission to save a young Thai soccer team from their cave prison.

Anaesthetist and underwater cave explorer Richard “Harry” Harris (pictured) risked his life on Saturday to make the journey to the chamber where the boys have been trapped underground for 15 days.

“The doctor from Adelaide has been an essential part of the health assessments for the young boys,” said Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop.

It was on his advice the first four boys were cleared to make the risky journey out of the flooded cave complex, emerging alive on Sunday.

One former colleague says there are good reasons why British caving experts working with Thai authorities at the site asked for his help.

Bill Griggs used to be Dr Harris’ boss at South Australia’s emergency medical retrieval service, MedSTAR, where the anaesthetist still works. “To do cave-diving, you have to be all about attention to detail and be meticulous,” Dr Griggs said.

“The combination of his medical knowledge and his cave-diving skills was clearly why the British guys requested he come as well.”

Dr Harris is renowned in the cave-diving community, including as leader of recordbreaking missions to explore an underwater cave system on New Zealand’s South Island.

In 2011 and 2012, Dr Harris led a team of Aussie divers to record depths of 194m and 221m in one of the world’s deepest cold water caves, searching for the source of the Pearse River.