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Thai hospital releases video of rescued boys chatting in beds Thai hospital releases video of rescued boys chatting in beds
(about 4 hours later)
The Thai hospital where 12 boys and their soccer coach are recuperating after being rescued from a flooded cave has released video showing them in their hospital beds, chatting with nurses and making two-finger victory signs. A collective gasp rippled through a crowded room of reporters on Wednesday when a projector set up by the staff of Narongsak Osatanakorn revealed the first images of the 12 boys who had been rescued, along with their football coach, from the depths of a flooded cave over the previous three days.
The video shows the boys in an isolation ward in beds with crisp white sheets and wearing green surgical masks. The video clips captured moments of levity shared between the boys, still confined to their beds and wearing surgical masks in an isolation ward, and the doctors who are now treating them at Chiang Rai’s Prachanukroh hospital.
The youngest, 11, appeared asleep while others, including their 25-year-old soccer coach, sat in bed, their faces obscured by green surgical masks. “Actually, we didn’t want to show [these clips], but many people didn’t believe [that the boys are healthy], so we decided to show it to the press today,” said Osatanakorn, the head of the joint command centre coordinating the rescue operation, who has led the search and rescue effort since the boys went missing on 23 June.
Some of their parents are seen crying and waving to them from behind glass. The boys are expected to remain in the hospital, about 100km from the mouth of Tham Luang cave, for seven to 10 days, hospital director Dr Chaiwetch Thanapaisal said on Wednesday night. They will receive regular health assessments, and samples of their blood will be sent to Bangkok for testing before they are able to return to normal life.
Nurses chatted with them and the boys responded with the customary Thai sign of respect hands pressed together while bowing the head. After they are discharged, they will have to stay home for 30 days to receive physical rehabilitation treatment and undergo continued health monitoring.
Chaiwetch Thanapaisal, director of the Chiang Rai Prachanukroh hospital, told a news conference together with the officials involved in the rescue that “everyone is strong in mind and heart”. Osatanakorn said that if the boys’ health improves, they may be able to talk to reporters.
The four boys and soccer coach brought out Tuesday on the final day of an all-out three-day push to save all of them had recovered more quickly than the boys rescued on Sunday and Monday, Chaiwetch said. “This depends solely on the physicians and their families,” he said.
Even so, all need to be monitored in the hospital for seven days and then rest at home for another 30 days, he said. Three have slight lung infections. All of the boys have been able to see their relatives, but only from the other side of a glass barrier to prevent the transmission of any infections the boys might be carrying after spending more than two weeks underground.
Another video released on Facebook by Thailand’s navy Seals apparently shows one of the boys being carried through part of the muddy cave on a stretcher covered by an emergency thermal blanket. According to Dr Thongchai Lertwilairattanapong, a public health department inspector, two of the rescued boys had mild lung infections. All of the boys, he said, had high counts of white blood cells, hinting at a potential infection of some kind. They are now all being given antibiotics and a series of vaccines.
The group had entered the sprawling Tham Luang cave to go exploring after soccer practice on 23 June but monsoon rains soon filled the tight passageways, blocking their escape. The first four boys to emerge from the cave are now eating solid food, while those who were rescued on Monday night are still restricted to food that is soft and bland. The doctor did not comment on the diets of the boys and coach rescued on Tuesday, but if they follow the same procedure as those who emerged from the cave earlier, they will be eating what doctors call “medical food” for at least a day.
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. While there are no reliable records on what the boys weighed before they went missing, Lertwilairattanapong has estimated that they each lost, on average, 2kg while in the cave, where they did not eat for nine days.
The complex mission for international and Thai divers to guide the boys and coach through the cave’s flooded and tight passageways riveted people worldwide. Despite the significant weight loss, the boys are in better condition than rescuers had expected.
Narongsak Osatanakorn, the official overseeing the rescue operation, lauded the cooperation between Thai and international rescuers. “By the seventh or eighth day, we were wondering how we would help the boys. We thought about the kids and how frail and weak they would be,” said R Adm Apakorn Youkongkaew, head of Naval Special Warfare Command. “But weren’t our kids amazing? The UK divers said when they reached the kids, they came running to see them.”
“The situation went beyond just being a rescue mission and became a symbol of unity among mankind,” he said. “Everyone worked together without discrimination of race or religion as the ultimate goal was to save the youth football team.” Lertwilairattanapong credited the boys’ relative strength and health to adult supervision: “We gave credit to Coach Ekk, who has taken care of kids well. They selected good-quality water, so even without food, they could survive for nine days.”
Each of the boys, ages 11 to 16 and with no diving experience, was guided out by divers though rocky, muddy and water passages that in places were just a crawl space.
The method was extremely risky, but dwindling oxygen levels in the cave and fears of more monsoon rains to come made a decision urgent.
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