How hero Aussie doctor saved 12 Thai schoolboys
As the world watched and hoped, Dr Richard ‘Harry’ Harris led the miracle rescue of the stranded soccer team – but now he faces his own heartbreaking battle
Ateam of Aussie heroes, led by Adelaide-based doctor Richard Harris, helped save the starving and terrified teenage Wild Boars soccer team, who were trapped for almost three weeks in what many feared would become a dark, watery tomb.
But in a sad twist, the brave rescuer will return to Australia to face yet another hurdle – the tragic loss of his father, which occurred just a short time after the successful operation.
“He’ll be coming home soon and taking some wellearned time off to be with his family,” said Dr Andrew Pearce, a colleague of Dr Harris and director of clinical services at MEDSTAR. “All the team at SA Ambulance Service is incredibly proud of Dr Harris.”
THE MISSION
Last week, the dangerous mission to extract the 12 boys, aged between 11 and 16, and their 25-year-old coach from the Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand was accomplished in stages and fraught with peril at almost every point of the arduous 4km underground journey.
The boys and their rescuers had to dive, swim and climb their way to safety through dark, partially flooded tunnels, which at one terrifying spot, known as the choke point, was only 38cm x 72cm. Few of the frail boys could swim and none had scuba-dived.
“It’s highly dangerous, it’s very precarious,” said Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop, who sent six Australian Federal Police divers alongside Dr Harris.
But the children, who were freed in groups of four, couldn’t be immediately reunited with their desperate parents, who’d held a prayer vigil outside, because of the risk of infection.
The boys were placed in a sterilised isolation unit for 48 hours to be medically checked, with hypothermia, starvation and “cave disease” – an airborne lung infection caused by bird and bat droppings – all risks.
The boys and their coach had spent nine days starving, perched on a damp, rocky ledge 1km underground before food and medicine could be sent to them.
British cave divers John Volanthen and Richard Stanton located the Wild Boars and their coach Ekkapol Chantawong on July 2. Dr Harris and his dive partner, Perth vet Dr Craig Challen, then began to work their miracle, convincing the team to extract the boys from the tunnels.
With incessant monsoon rains threatening to flood the caves further, and oxygen levels running low, the rescuers had to act fast but safely.
Friends of Dr Harris say Harry has a unique set of skills to offer the rescue mission.
“His medical expertise, experience as a cave diver and as a retrieval expert is invaluable,” says his friend David Strike, who confirmed Thai Navy SEALS and elite divers from Australia, the US and UK especially requested Dr Harris join the mission.
“In this small fraternity of people, when you get asked for by name you’re known worldwide for your skills,” adds Dr Pearce.
Friends describe Harry, 53, as a “quiet, well-liked bloke” who was supposed to be on holidays when he was asked to go to Thailand. He then risked his own life to dive to the chamber where the boys were trapped to medically assess them and made the call to extract the four weakest boys in the first stage.
THE RESCUE
What followed was a terrifyingly perilous journey as 13 specialist foreign divers and five Thai Navy SEALS made their way inside the cave to assess how to help the boys get out. In the highly specialised mission, two divers were assigned to guide each boy, one in the lead and one following behind.
They’d been given basic scuba instruction, and extra oxygen tanks and a safety line were pre-installed along the route. Tragically, a volunteer former Thai Navy SEAL died during the preparations, highlighting the extreme danger of the mission.
As the rescue started, a Thai official urged the watching world to “pray and send your encouragement”. And those prayers were answered when the first four boys walked out of the cave unaided on July 8.
“2 days, 8 wild boars. Hooyah!’ the Thai Navy SEALS posted on their Facebook page after day two. The remaining four boys and their coach were led to safety on July 10.
The boys wrote heartwarming letters to their parents while they were trapped, and like typical teenage boys the world over, their first thought was food!
“Dad and Mum, don’t worry, I’m fine,” wrote one boy, “but please tell my brother to get ready to take me to get fried chicken. Love you all.”
‘Two divers were assigned to guide each boy’