An unexpected 18-day ordeal
Now safe and sound, the Wild Boars – and their rescuers – are sharing stories of the dangers and their survival after rising waters trapped them in the cave.
THE boys meant to explore the cave for just an hour, a casual jaunt to relax after soccer practice, but the waters rose. The teammates climbed higher, using their hands to feel the walls for a crawl space that would lead to safer, higher ground. Those handprints were among the first signs of where the boys were, what they had done to escape the floods, and what dangers rescuers would face in their mission to save the boys and their coach.
The boys are now recuperating and the rescuers who brought them to safety are starting to share stories of the dangers and their survival.
Family members, first able to reunite with them only through a glass window, now can meet faceto-face though still not touch, to ensure any illnesses don’t spread.
Banphot Konkum, father of 13-year-old Duangpetch Promthep, said that his son – better known by his nickname, Dom – said the team members didn’t know rain had started falling after they had entered the cave on June 23. But the rain caused flooding in the cave, blocking them from exiting.
“After an hour, when they wanted to leave, the water level was rising. They ran farther inside the cave to escape from the water. The water flow was strong,” said Banphot.
In their search for a safe haven, the boys were reported to have used their hands to feel the walls for an opening to take them to a higher, safer spot. Searchers later found what they thought were the boys’ handprints, giving them confidence the boys were alive and that the searchers were on the right path.
“They, all 13 of them, saw a small passage or a crawl space, so they all dug the hole to get through to another spot, until they found Nen Nom Sao,” Banphot said, referring to the sandy slope on which they ended up sheltering.
Banphot added that all 13 rescued team members will enter the monkhood to pay tribute to Saman Kunan, a former Thai navy SEAL who died while diving to place essential supplies along the rescue route. Becoming a monk at a temple for at least a short period is a way of making merit in Thai Buddhist tradition.
The mother of the youngest Wild Boar teammate, 11-year old Chanin Wiboonrungruang, told the Bangkok Post that her son, nicknamed Tun, said the team did not bring along any food since they were only planning a short trek into the cave.
“After the first three nights with no food in the cave, my son felt extreme hunger and cried,” said Aikhan. “He had to rely only on water dripping from the rock. It was very cold at night and pitch dark. They had to lie huddled together.”
According to Tun, she said, it was their 25-year-old soccer coach Ekapol “Ake” Chanthawong, having spent nearly a decade as a Buddhist monk, who helped them to meditate to ease their hunger and save their energy.
Rick Stanton, one of the two British divers who found the group, admitted that the rescue operation was “completely uncharted, unprecedented territory”, and he had not been certain the boys would be found alive.
Recalling the moment when he and his diving partner John Volanthen found the boys on their 10th day inside the cave, he said his initial reaction was “of course, excitement, relief that they were still alive”.
“As they were coming down the slope we were counting them till we got to 13. Unbelievable,” he said.
“They looked in good health, but of course when we departed all we could think about was how we were going to get them out. And so there was relief tempered with uncertainty.”
The British divers who blazed the trail were praised by Australian doctor-diver Richard Harris, who stayed in the cave for three days to oversee the medical care of the boys while they were waiting to be rescued.
“Rick and John not only found the children and coach alive, but conveyed the gravity of the situation to the rest of the world and thus the rescue started in earnest,” he wrote on his Facebook page on Friday, as he was flying home on an Australian air force plane with his countrymen who also worked at the cave. Sadly, the 53-year-old anaesthetist received some horrible news when he emerged from Tham Luang cave after the rescue operation – the death of his father.
It was a high-risk, three day mis- sion for the international team of cave divers and Thai navy SEALs to extract the 12 boys and their coach.
“None of the tasks were easy,” said Thai navy SEAL commander Rear Adm Arpakorn Yookongkaew said after his men flew back to their base at Sattahip on the Gulf of Thailand.
“We were working on many tasks and we had to plan well. Our troops were taking risks, working in dangerous conditions and risking their lives. Many had to go to hospitals after the dives and many were sick. But we didn’t mention it because it could affect morale.”