Sanctuary for natural peace
The mission to rescue 12 young Thai footballers could so easily have ended in tragedy, writes James Massola.
Sunday, July 8, began like any other morning in Tham Luang cave, near the Thai city of Chiang Mai. The Wild Boars football team woke early, as they always did, in the dark.
The air inside the cave was humid but, as they entered their 16th day perched in the Nern Nom Sao cavern, the boys were still feeling the cold despite the space blankets and extra clothes they had been given.
After being trapped for so long, the sandy bank on which they were perched felt smaller than ever. It was still only 5 to 6 metres wide, and about 20-25m deep, from the water’s edge to the back of the cave, while the slope, at various points, was as steep as 30 degrees. They must have felt as if the walls were closing in on them. The novelty of energy gels and Meals Ready to Eat had worn off, and conditions in the cave – the darkness, the smell and the constant chill – were wearing them down.
The day before, some British divers and an Australian doctor had visited and given them a detailed account of the rescue plan, which had been accepted by the Boars’ families, despite their fears that it could end in disaster and tragedy.
After fasting in preparation for the rescue, six of the boys had woken up hungry. But the rescue divers faced dawn that morning with a faint feeling of dread. Brits Rick Stanton, John Volanthen, Chris Jewell and Jason Mallinson, and Australian medics Richard Harris and Craig Challen, had all been in this situation before. They’d participated in some of the riskiest, most extreme cave rescues. They’d lost friends, and helped bring back the bodies of the dead.
The diving itself may not have been the most technically difficult. But nothing like this had been attempted before; usually, by the time help arrives, it is already too late. There was no base line against which to measure themselves.
And no-one in the rescue team had ever undertaken a mission like this, with many millions watching, hoping, praying they would succeed.
But other divers in the rescue team had far less experience, even none at all, in undertaking a high-risk rescue with such a precious, vulnerable cargo.
There were so many factors that could go wrong at any point. And the worst-case scenario – that some or even all of the boys would lose their lives – had been war-gamed again and again. If one of the boys woke up from sedation, panicked and ripped off his mask in an underwater section of the cave, he could endanger the life of his rescuer, as well as himself.
Everything possible had been done to prepare for the rescue. For the boys, there were special wetsuits that would ensure they didn’t lose too much body heat on the journey out, as well as full-face masks to fit the smallest of them. Oxygen and air cylinders had been placed at strategic points in chambers throughout the cave.
But for all their careful preparations, most of the rescuers expected multiple casualties. As Challen would later recall, ‘‘It wasn’t dangerous for us, but I can’t emphasise enough how dangerous it was for the kids. It was absolutely life and death. We didn’t expect to be getting 13 people out of there alive.’’
‘NO CHANCE OF IT WORKING’
Richard Harris was perhaps the most pessimistic. He would tell a conference in Melbourne in late September: ‘‘Personally, I honestly thought there was zero chance of success. I honestly thought there was no chance of it working.’’
Deteriorating air conditions forced the timing of the rescue. It finally began at 10.08am on Sunday, July 8, when 13 international divers entered Tham Luang cave. Heavy rain had fallen overnight and, later that day, it would fall again, but at this hour the skies over Mae Sai were grey and threatening rain, underlining the urgency of the rescue mission.
The 13 divers were closely supported by five Thai Navy Seals, as well as dozens of personnel from the Thai military, the United States, China and Australia who were positioned in the first three chambers of the cave.
The divers had, at most, a three-day window before the forecast rain would make a rescue impossible.
SLOW JOURNEY BEGINS
Inside the cave, the divers began their slow journey through the nine chambers from the entrance to Nern Nom Sao. Most of the men would position themselves at strategic points along the route, while Harris and four British divers – Volanthen, Stanton, Jewell and Mallinson – would travel all the way to the boys, where the Brits would be in charge.
Contrary to reports at the time, the boys were not assigned two divers each. That wasn’t logistically possible, given how narrow and difficult some sections of the cave were. But, almost every step of the way, a second diver would assist the man bringing them out. Each British diver would take one boy all the way from chamber 9 to the entrance.
The Brits, as well as Harris and his dive buddy Challen, went in first, as they had the longest dive ahead of them. Travelling in pairs, they set out from chamber 3, where the diving began in earnest, at about 20-minute intervals. Over the next few hours they slowly made their way to predetermined points along the route.
Challen, Claus Rasmussen and Mikko Paasi were stationed in chamber 8, the first stop on the return journey for the four Brits as each came through with one boy. The route from chamber 9, Nern Nom Sao, to chamber 8 included a 350m dive that would be one of the hardest sections to negotiate.
The rescue plan called for Challen, a retired vet, to be ready to deliver a ‘‘top up’’ injection to the boys in chamber 8 to keep them sedated, if necessary.
In chamber 6, Ivan Karadzic and Erik Brown would be ready with air and oxygen tanks, and more medicine to inject into the boys if the effects of the sedative were starting to wear off.
Between chambers 6 and 5, there was another 150m dive, then a 150m canal. And in chamber 5, Connor Roe and Jim Warny would be waiting with more air, oxygen and medicine to help the divers and each of the boys through to chamber 3. Along the way, there were two more dives of about 150m each to make before, finally, they reached chamber 3.
Chamber 3 was relatively huge – perhaps half the size of a school gymnasium, according to Brown. In all, there were perhaps another 150 rescuers stationed between chamber 3 and the exit.
In chamber 3 each boy’s vital signs would be checked by doctors and gauze placed over his eyes to protect them from the light outside the cave. Then he would be placed in a Sked stretcher and loaded onto the elaborate pulley system, or highline, which made it simpler and quicker to transport each boy through to the entrance.
But some sections simply couldn’t accommodate the highline, so he would still have to pass through a couple of hundred hands as he was brought out of the cave.
The planning had been methodical, but all the preparation and medication in the world would count for nought if one of the boys woke up mid-dive and panicked.
TIME FOR THE INJECTIONS
Harris was ready to prime the needle; it was time to sedate the first Wild Boar. He had calculated approximately what dose each boy would need. He would give each one alprazolam – more commonly known as Xanax, an antianxiety drug – by mouth, then inject him in each leg with ketamine, a sedative.
Harris had devised a plan for handling the injections. First, each of the boys to be taken out that day would swallow a tablet, which would make him feel a bit strange, and then he would join Harris at the bottom of the bank, near the water. There, he would be injected in the legs and go to sleep. When he woke up again, he would be in a hospital bed, out of the cave.
While Harris prepared his sedatives, the boys were briefed again in Thai by a Dr Pak. As he spoke to the boys, the doctor, who had already spent seven nights in the cave with three Navy Seals, paid careful attention to whether or not the first four were ready for the mission.
They were; they were eager to get started. Down by the water line, under unsteady torchlights, Harris was ready. He plunged the needle into Note’s leg; he would be the first boy out.
THE UNDERWATER TEST
Once the first boy was sedated, and his full-face mask fitted, Harris took him down to the water and pushed his head under water. It was absolutely critical to test each full-face mask to make sure it fitted properly.
After about 30 seconds, which passed with agonising slowness, Note started breathing again; the mask worked, and the sedative had been administered in the right dose. Over the next three days, Harris would repeat this breathing test 12 times.
After so long in the cave, a couple of the boys showed