SAFE RETURN
MAE SAI, Thailand – The last four boys and their coach were freed from a cave in northern Thailand on Tuesday, the third day of a harrowing rescue operation that brought the young soccer players out of a winding, flooded cavern where they were trapped for more than two weeks.
“Everyone safe,” the Thai navy SEALs, who led the rescue effort, posted on Facebook. “Hooyah.”
Calling the rescue effort “17 days that will be remembered forever,” acting Chiang Rai Gov. Narongsak Osottanakorn announced that all 12 members of the team, as well as three SEALs and a medic who were staying with them, had safely left the cave and were healthy.
“We did what no one ever thought we could do,” he said. “This was a mission impossible that we have accomplished.”
Narongsak credited the teamwork of all the local and international rescue personnel, volunteers and agencies that took part in the massive operation and said there was a lesson to be learned for Thailand and the world.
“I believe we have a special power: love,” he said. “We love each other. We sent love into the cave. This is the lesson I want Thailand to remember, this is the lesson I want the world to see.”
The first four boys were removed from the cave Sunday. Four more were extracted Monday. All the rescued boys and their coach were taken to a hospital in the nearby city of Chiang Rai.
Jubilation swept through the area as news of the final evacuations spread. Roaring cheers greeted the helicopters flying overhead carrying the kids and their coach to a hospital 35 miles away.
“I feel like it happened so fast,” said Suparat Chaiwong, a 22-year-old nursing student who was delivering donated food and supplies to rescue workers. “We were so scared and worried. Now I’m just very happy for the kids and their families and everyone involved in the rescue.”
Others said they appreciated how the rescue effort brought so many people together to help, both locally and from all over the globe.
“I’m proud that so many people came together,” said Wimon Phacharoen, a volunteer with the Red Cross Society.
Torrential rain fell overnight and through the morning in the area of the vast Tham Luang cave complex, where the members of the Wild Boars youth soccer team had been stranded on June 23.
Some players and an assistant coach were exploring the caves when heavy rains flooded parts of them, trapping them more than 2 miles from the entrance.
Rescuers had been racing against time because monsoon rains were expected to kick up this week.
Nineteen rescue divers took part in the Tuesday’s operation, which had been expected to move more quickly than in the previous two days. It took 11 hours on Sunday to retrieve the first four boys, and nine hours to retrieve another four on Monday.
The first four boys, ages 14-16, had low body temperatures, and two were diagnosed with lung infections, Jesada Chokdamrongsuk, Thailand’s permanent secretary for health, told reporters at Chiang Rai Prachanukroh Hospital, according to the Bangkok Post.
The second group of four rescued Monday, ages 12-14, also had low body temperatures and one had an irregular heartbeat, but by Tuesday morning all four boys were normal, Jesada said.
“Everyone is in high spirits and are happy to get out,” Jesada said. “But we will have a psychiatrist to evaluate them.”
It could be at least seven days before they can be released from hospital, Jesada told reporters.