Rescued Thai boys celebrate freedom
MAE SAI (AP) — As ecstatic relatives watched and waved from behind a glass barrier, the 12 boys and their soccer coach rescued from deep within a flooded cave in Thailand made the V-for-Victory sign on Wednesday from their beds in a hospital isolation ward where they are recovering from the 18-day ordeal.
An American involved in the operation described the perilous zero-visibility dives that brought the boys out safely as a “once in a lifetime rescue.”
Derek Anderson, a 32-year-old rescue specialist with the US Air Force based in Okinawa, Japan said that at times during the risky rescue, the boys had to be put into harnesses and high-lined across the rocky caverns. At other times, they endured dives lasting up to half an hour in the pitch-black waters.
“The world just needs to know that what was accomplished was a once in a lifetime rescue,” Anderson told The Associated Press in an interview on Wednesday. “We were extremely fortunate that the outcome was the way it was. It’s important to realize how complex and how many pieces of this puzzle had to come together.”
He said the boys, ranging in age from 11 to 16, were “incredibly resilient.”
“What was really important was the coach and the boys all came together and discussed staying strong, having the will to live, having the will to survive,” Anderson said.
That gutsy determination was on display Wednesday in a video taken from the hospital isolation ward. The boys, their faces covered by green surgical masks, flashed the V-forVictory sign as they sat up in bed and chatted with their nurses, at times responding with the customary Thai sign of respect — hands pressed together while bowing the head. The youngest boy, 11, appeared to be asleep under a crisp white sheet.
“Don’t need to worry about their physical health and even more so for their mental health,” said Chaiwetch Thanapaisal, director of Chiang Rai Prachanukroh Hospital.
“Everyone is strong in mind and heart,” he said at a news conference of officials involved in the rescue.
The four boys and 25-year-old soccer coach who were brought out Tuesday on the final day of the three-day rescue effort have recovered more quickly than the boys rescued on Sunday and Monday, Chaiwetch said.
Even so, all need to be monitored in the hospital for a week and then rest at home for another 30 days, he said. Three have slight lung infections.
Another video released on Facebook by the Thai Navy SEALs, who were central to the rescue, showed one of the boys being carried through part of the muddy cave on a stretcher covered by an emergency thermal blanket.
The SEALs commander, Rear Adm. Apakorn Youkongkae, said the soccer coach, Ekkapol Chantawong, determined the order the boys from the Wild Boars soccer team should be rescued in. “The coach was the one to choose,” he said.
The group had entered the sprawling Tham Luang cave in northern Thailand to go exploring after soccer practice on June 23 when monsoon rains filled the tight passageways, blocking their escape. They were found by a pair of British divers nearly 10 days later, huddled on a small, dry shelf just above the water, smiling with relief but visibly skinny.