Team flashes signs of recovery as U.S. diver details cave rescue
Members of the Wild Boars soccer team signal they are OK after
MAE SAI, Thailand — 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 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-alifetime rescue.”
Derek Anderson, a 32year-old rescue specialist with the U.S. 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 a half-hour in pitchblack waters.
“The world just needs to know that what was accomplished was a once in a lifetime rescue,” Anderson said 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 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-for-Victory 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.”
The four boys and 25year-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 Sunday and 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 Tham Luang cave to go exploring after soccer practice 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.
Each of the boys, with no diving experience, was guided out though rocky and water-filled passages that in places were just a crawl space. Monday,