Boys owe lives to daring rescuers
Hero doctor emerges to a family tragedy
AUSTRALIAN divers have told of the dramatic rescue of 12 boys and their soccer coach trapped in a Thai cave system as each was passed “hand to hand” on stretchers between the rescuers to get them out.
At a briefing by three unnamed Australian divers yesterday, one estimated the boys may have passed through 150 pairs of hands in chamber three, after two divers accompanied each of them out of two inner chambers.
The coach and the last three boys were extracted from the cave on Tuesday evening as the rescue, dubbed “mission impossible” concluded to jubilation in Thailand and around the world.
Those rescued are recovering in a Chiang Rai hospital.
Joy at the rescue was marred when tragedy struck the Australian doctor at the heart of the mission, with the unexpected death of his father in Adelaide, soon after the heroic mission was completed.
Adelaide anaesthetist and underwater cave explorer Richard “Harry” Harris risked his own life to make the treacherous journey to the underground chamber where the group of 13 had been trapped for two weeks.
But soon after the rescue reached its successful climax on Tuesday, Dr Harris’ father Jim passed away in what his boss and colleague at Adel- aide’s medical retrieval service said was a “complete, unexpected shock”.
“Earlier this morning, Harry’s father passed away here in Adelaide,” MedSTAR clinical director Andrew Pearce said yesterday.
“Harry was aware of that as it happened, and, as most of you know, that was after they’d all come out of the cave successfully.”
Dr Pearce said Dr Harris did not undertake the rescue mission knowing his father was near death.
Dr Harris played a crucial role in the rescue effort after assessing the boys on Saturday and ruling them well enough to be dived out of the cave.
Speaking to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull via FaceTime yesterday, Dr Harris said the “big heroes” were the children themselves, and the Thai Navy SEAL divers who looked after them in the cave.
“They are the toughest blokes and kids I’ve ever had the privilege to meet,” he said.
“They are the ones who were responsible for their own morale and really their own safety and without them being in the state they were in, we couldn’t have done anything.”
Thai Navy SEALs led the daring operation helped by divers and medical support staff from the UK, Australia, Europe and China.
The 13 from the Mu Pa ‘Wild Boars’ team were stranded by rising waters 4km into the cave system on June 23 and faced a treacherous journey out through murky water and narrow flooded sections.
The most forbidding part of the journey out of the cave was a U-bend only 38cm wide called “The Choke”.
One of the Australian divers said their main job was to move air tanks and other equipment to the end of chamber three where other divers could continue on to extract the boys.
The Australian divers who usually perform “black water”, or zero visibility operations, use heavier equipment and were limited in their ability to get through smaller spaces.
However, they offered back-up support by checking air tank gauges as they passed and making sure the boys’ face masks were properly on.
“For the final three days of the operation we were helping bring the little fellas out. Everyone was given tasks and places to be to assist in handing the young fellas to get them all the way to the front of the cave,” one of the Australian divers said.
He said three of his colleagues were receiving the boys after they passed the narrow opening at the end of chamber two and checking on them before they were hand passed along the 1.4km-stretch to the opening.
They are the toughest blokes and kids I’ve ever had the privilege to meet. DR RICHARD HARRIS