Yes, touch can be very therapeutic and calming. There have been many studies showing this.
BBC is reporting that the boys were heavily sedated and that the Thai authorities are being coy about that for some reason. Personally, it seems the best coarse. Why put the boys through the horrors if it isn’t necessary? They wake up after it’s all over with no memory of the terror and the divers were able to worry about getting them out, not about how they were coping. Expert divers were having troubles because they weren’t cave divers, so non-swimmers wouldn’t be of much help in getting back to the entrance except in the portions where they could walk. It sounds like they decided to use stretchers and other rescue personnel for those sections. I think the boys are blessed to not have been awake.
The Australian world-class expert cave diver who is an anesthesiologist likely had the major role in deciding what to administer and the quantity for each child. There were medics throughout the journey, checking the boys. I’ve seen footage of the boys strapped into stretchers and being passed and carried in the stretchers in their thermal blankets.
The divers are admitting the boys were heavily sedated so they were “sleeping” for the rescue (but still breathing independently). That was very smart and sensible. I’m glad it was so successful and likely caused much less trauma for the boys to recover from.
" Farmers crops were ruined and are being compensated by the Thai government—the farmers will have to replant." It would be interesting to find out what the total cost of the rescue is? Are any of the other nations who sent personnel and equipment going to be compensated by the Thai government?
What I’ve read said that most governments that contributed did so as goodwill gesture and don’t expect reimbursement. Some foreign divers got complimentary travel from the 2 main Thai air carriers.
Have not seen a total cost but there were huge numbers of people involved—over 1,000. Have read that Thailand is shouldering much of the cost.
One of the Thai officials is quoted as wanting to turn this cave into a tourist attraction, capitalizing on having had the world stage for the rescue. Personally, I’m not sure how that can be safely done, but who knows?
Here’s a follow up article—no paywall. International volunteers are all being offered a weeklong all-expense paid trip to Thailand and given 5 year visas.
I really think people who are blaming the coach are looking at this from a western perspective. I’ve hiked in southern Asia a couple of times. Kids there are often very free range. It wasn’t unusual to have kids follow us for hours trying to practice English - younger than these soccer players. In the US, this cave would be set in a national or regional park behind gates with tight entry. If anyone has been to Carlsbad Caverns, Mammoth Cave, Wind Cave, Jewel Cave, etc you know what I’m talking about.
This was an open cave near where people were living. I’m sure kids were in and out of there all the time. The team had visited before. The sign outside the cave said no entry July to November. They entered June 23 and it is my understanding is it was not raining when they entered the cave and flash flooding can happen really fast. I think we could just as easily blame their parents for being so free range or the government for not more tightly regulating entry to the cave. I really think without the level headed coach there the outcome may not have been so happy. That first footage of those boys is incredible. I can’t imagine what it was like for them to see the diver come out of the water after 9 days in that cave with no contact.
This is the sign outside the cave
http://www.nationmultimedia.com/img/photos/2018/July/5/043432a35e27a17b2731f9e9c31ed33c.jpeg
As far as sedating the kids, well duh, that makes perfect sense. They could not have been too heavily sedated because they were breathing on their own. I saw a video of one boy in the stretcher and he was moving his hand.
Here’s an article about some costly rescue operations.
I’ve heard of first time sky divers who panic and start trying to run away while in the air.
I had a career working in the woods, many times alone and very far away from the nearest person, home, or town. I had a co-worker who was a big guy, high school football star who admitted that he got the fight or flight reflex when he got disoriented one time and starting running around in the forest.
Can you imagine that happening to one of those kids? Better safe than sorry IMO.
Panic is very real and a well-known risk with fatal consequences in diving. The chances of safely getting all 13 boys/men out without heavy sedation and without at least one of them panicking would have been infintesimally small. Why risk it?
All the world class divers put their heads together and chose the solution that they figured would be safest and best for all. I see NO point at all in 2nd guessing anything they did and applaud them for their selflessness.
One of the articles mentioned building a museum outside the cave describing the rescue, etc… They could also make it so that the cave, or the flood-risky parts of the cave, are only open during low risk seasons for people to go inside.
If the place is prone to flooding (as ig appears to to be), it would also be prone to mold, mildew, erosion and all that goes with frequent flooding. I think this would have to be carefully thought out and planned. I’m glad that I’m the meantime the cave has been closed.
I was thinking that once the rescue was accomplished the cave entrance should be blasted shut so no one else could get trapped in there trying to see where the boys had been.
I think shutting it off could cause problems for the surrounding area. It is obviously part of the natural drainage for the area during the monsoon season. Maybe there is a way to block entry, but with the amount of water that was flowing in there at the beginning of the rainy season, that even seems unlikely.
It’s a very large cave system, with miles of passages. It is the largest cave system in Thailand, I believe. Blasting it would cause major issues and is not a good idea.
Sorry, I wasn’t clear. I mean blast the cave entrance, just the entrance, not the cave itself, making it impervious to humans which, of course, is not the same as making it impervious to water.
If they wanted to close off the cave, they would not need to blast it shut. They could just build a porous-to-water fence around it, along with a gate that can be opened and closed seasonally if desired.
(And change the sign – “June” stickers on top of where it says “July”.)
Good news for the coach and stateless kids:
Fingers crossed for them
Over 400,000 people born and living in Thailand are stateless (have no citizenship or nationality of any country), according to https://www.bangkokpost.com/opinion/opinion/1153413/plight-of-the-stateless .
Yes, I have read an estimate of about 480,000 estimated stateless people. They can’t travel, get decent jobs and are vulnerable to exploitation. It’s like undocumented immigrants in many other places.