10PM Update: Soccer Team still trapped in flooded cave, search suspended due to rising waters, believed still alive

[Mr Wombat]

This is an extract from a story in the aussie media about the doctor giving the all clear to the boys. While we sit around all day dreaming of ways to get back to pattaya, some guys truely are living amazing lives

The Australian doctor and Cave diving expert playing a critical role in the mission to rescue a young Thai soccer team from their flooded Cave is a meticulous operator, according to his colleagues.

Adelaide anaesthetist and underwater Cave explorer Richard “Harry” Harris risked his own life on Saturday to make the treacherous journey to the chamber where the boys have been trapped underground for 15 days.

It was on his advice the first four boys were cleared to make the incredibly dangerous journey out of the flooded Cave complex, emerging alive on Sunday.

Dr Harris, who has led record-breaking Cave explorations, continues to play a key role in the international effort to rescue the remaining eight boys and their coach.

One former colleague says there are very good reasons why British caving experts working with Thai authorities at the site asked for the help of Dr Harris.

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Australian doctor and diver Richard Harris is playing a key part in the Thailand Cave rescue.

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Bill Griggs used to be Dr Harris’s boss at South Australia’s emergency medical retrieval service, MedSTAR, where the anaesthetist still works.

“To do cave-diving, you have to be all about attention to detail and you have to be meticulous,” Dr Griggs has told ABC radio.

“The combination of his medical knowledge and his Cave diving skills was clearly (why) the British guys requested that he come as well.”

Dr Harris, who has 30 years of diving experience, is well known in the Cave diving community, including as the leader of record-breaking missions to explore a dark and dangerous underwater Cave system on New Zealand’s South Island.

In 2011 and 2012, he led a team of Aussie divers to record depths of 194 and 221 metres in what’s believed to be one of the world’s deepest cold water caves, searching for the source of the Pearse River.

 

He filmed the dangerous and complex mission for National Geographic.

It required the team to set up a series of survival pods at intervals to allow divers to decompress, rest and eat in the near-freezing waters along the length of an underwater river – an experience that could prove invaluable in the current rescue mission.

Dr Harris’s dive team also had to contend with fast flowing water, as is the case in parts of the Thai Cave complex, in water that was near freezing point.

The rescue divers and boys in Thailand must dive, swim and climb their way to safety along a pitch-black tunnel that at points is barely big enough to allow an adult human body to wriggle through.

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Thai rescue teams arrange water pumping system at the entrance to the flooded Cave. Source: AP

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Four of the trapped boys have so far been removed from the flooded Cave. Source: AP

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David Strike has known Dr Harris for more than 10 years and says his unique skill set gives the boys every chance of making it out.

“It’s an over-used term, but all of those involved are true heroes,” he told Fairfax media.

In 2011, Dr Harris had the difficult task of recovering the body of his friend, Cave diver Agnes Milowka, after she ran out of air in Tank Cave at Millicent, near Mount Gambier in South Australia.

[brutox]

5 hours ago, Oukiva said:

Boys in the cave said rescuers they were still alive thanks to the coach . He forced everyone to keep hope, took care of them as a father would have done, taught them how to drink the clear water from walls not floodwater, taught them to meditate and stay lying down to consume as few energy as possible, etc.

Looks like there will be a nice story to say when the rescue will be finished 

and looks like some people condemned the coach way to early, without knowing what exactly happened...

I hear you, Oukiva .. still, this guy might suffer heavy feelings of guilt.

There is the intellectual side, described above, which makes all the sense in the world to people who have not been traumatized through it all.

Then, there is the emotional side, in which he might well feel guilty for having allowed them to make this dangerous trek .. he was the adult .. he might feel responsible for the Thai SEAL diver's death .. on top of it, he is in the first group out .. for understandable reason to us, but maybe not so understandable to him, emotionally .. he must see himself as the team leader with ultimate responsibility for these boys care .. he might feel that he abandoned them, especially if anything goes wrong today .. last man off the field of battle is traditionally the greatest demonstration of leadership.

This guy might understandably suffer through a lot of deep, mixed emotions .. as explained to me, the irreconcilable conflict between our intellectual and emotional sides creates psychological wounds.

 

[Oukiva]

47 minutes ago, brutox said:

This guy might understandably suffer through a lot of deep, mixed emotions.

Apparently he already add a life full of strong emotions , by example when, at the age of 10, he lost nearly all his family when a disease swept through his village... Now an orphan who shares is life between the monastery and the football team...

[Oukiva]

Another "International Rescue" drawing  

Who is who ? 

[Oukiva]

Apparently from ThaiPBS TV yesterday evening :

#1 #2 #3 #4...   with the arrival time

[Oukiva]

7 hours ago, Oukiva said:

08:50 : Nine ambulances have arrived already at the cave exit... One for each of the 9 boys still inside.

It is believed that the rescue mission restarted early morning, but no official conference yet.

As yesterday, no "good news" expected before the end of this afternoon...

Still no official press conference today  (that I am aware of...)

Several media report that the mission resumed around noon "according to a Thai Navy official with knowledge of the operation" 

If so, we should not expect a new boy out before about 8PM  (in 5 hours from now)

The level of water continues to lower (thanks to the pumps) and the trip in-out can now be made in less than 8 hours against 12 hours a few days ago, because many place where they can now walk rather than swim or dive … but the rain is now falling again in the Cave area 

Edit: 15:02: "Governor Narongsak confirms rescue operation resumed at 11 am" 

He also said "same operation with same divers as yesterday"

So 4 boys? and first out at about 19h? (7PM) 

 

Edit: 15:40: “All the equipment is ready. Oxygen bottles are ready... in next few hours we will have good news,” Rescue chief Narongsak Osottanakorn told reporters, after announcing the second phase of the rescue bid had begun.  

...

 

[padfoot]

I love the name Wild Boars. If the boys chose that name it says a lot about their spirit.

[Oukiva]

A banner at the high school half of the boys attend.

Learning English really does help when you’re rescued by British divers after being trapped in a Cave for 2 weeks. 

 

[Doubleh]

   I saw this come across my FB

[Oukiva]

4 hours ago, Oukiva said:

Another "International Rescue" drawing  

Who is who ? 

 

Answer found on Twitter :

[forcebwithu]

14 minutes ago, Doubleh said:

   I saw this come across my FB

Once they're all rescued and debriefed, it would be interesting to learn what they went through to escape the rising waters in the Cave system. This graphic talks about them seeking higher ground when the flooding began, but at several points along the passageways they had to go down before up. Key question I'm wondering about is if they had to free dive any the low points to get to safety.

What a harrowing ordeal for the children and coach. First having to scramble to find high ground, then the wait of 10 days not knowing if they would be found in time or if their last hold out would also flood, to the dive and trek back out to safety.

[Oukiva]

That seems rather early if the operation really started at 11AM,

but reports that boy #5 is out...  Source seems to be a CNN reporter.

(Seeing yesterday experience, be careful with what Internet media are saying/writing...)

 

Edit: Reuters confirms

[forcebwithu]

Bangkok Post reports that four boys have made it to chamber 3 around 4 pm. If true, looks like five children will be waiting until tomorrow for rescue.

Source: https://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general/1500434/four-more-boys-reach-chamber-3-in-tham-luang-cave-source

[Hispano]

Spain represent! Fernando Raigal, works in Thailand as a diver for oil companies and has volunteered. He is specialized in deep diving and was trained in the Spanish Navy.

[Ah dinnae ken]

No hugs yet: parents visiting rescued boys behind glass

The first thing you'd want after 16 days stuck in a cold, dark Cave would be a hug from mum, followed by a hot meal. But instead of getting their creature comforts straight away, the boys will reportedly spend up to two more days in isolation.  

Matt Rivers

 

✔@MattRiversCNN

 

 

Thai health officials: rescued boys will now be in isolation for 1-2 days, inside a sterilized isolation unit, meaning no physical contact with their parents. A heartbreaking, necessary precaution at a time when all these kids and parents want to do is give one another a hug.

CNN quoted the following statement from the hospital: "The next step is to make sure those kids and their families are safe because living in cave has a different environment which might contains animals that could transmit any disease."

9:40 AM - Jul 9, 2018

•  

[Oukiva]

17:50: #6 is out of the Cave   ,  #7 in chamber #2

[Farangkie]

If all these kids get out safe ,  I may change my mind , maybe there is a God .....or a Buddha.

[william77]

35 minutes ago, Syco said:

If all these kids get out safe ,  I may change my mind , maybe there is a God .....or a Buddha.

This was not God, this was team work, years of experience, clever minds, pushing limits, under extreme time pressure, streamlined and lean work methods combined with high end equipment and a generous Thai Government. 

[Farangkie]

Three are out today.

 

 

[Oukiva]

4 are out today, so a total of 8 rescued already... 

 

Looks like rescue operation has completed for today.

Tomorrow should see the 4 last boys out, plus their coach probably the last one.

[rope-a-dope]

2 hours ago, Oukiva said:

 

Answer found on Twitter :

I think the crow pertains to bad comments re the coach...who is a legend in my eyes.

[Harry Brown]

This is about the 4th time my request has been ignored to stay off politics. Next  will get sanctioned.

[Just Browsing]

38 minutes ago, Oukiva said:

4 are out today, so a total of 8 rescued already... 

 

Looks like rescue operation has completed for today.

Tomorrow should see the 4 last boys out, plus their coach probably the last one.

I believe the coach was in the 1st group to be pulled out due to his deteriorating health owing to the fact that he gave the kids his share of the rations.

 

 

[Oukiva]

7 minutes ago, JB300 said:

I believe the coach was in the 1st group to be pulled out due to his deteriorating health owing to the fact that he gave the kids his share of the rations.

It's what BangkokPost announced yesterday, but it was wrong information. 

The coach (or in fact assistant-coach) Ekapol Chantawong is still inside with the 4 last boys and some rescuers.

 

[Bobmoore]

What we know so far

• The Thai navy Seals have confirmed that eight boys have been rescued from the Tham Luang Cave complex in Northern Thailand, after two separate rescue operations. A further four boys were rescued on Monday after four were rescued on Sunday.
• A further four boys and their coach Ekapol Chantawong remain in the Cave. The identities of the rescued boys have not been confirmed.
• Thai public television broadcast live video of a medivac helicopters landing close to a hospital in the city of Chiang Rai. They were believed to be ferrying the rescued boys. 
• Thai prime minister, Prayut Chan-O-Cha has delayed a planned visit to the site so as not to disruption the rescue operation. He had been due at the site at 6pm but is remaining at nearby Chiang Rai where the rescued boys are being treated in hospital.
• The operation to extract more of the boys began on Monday at 11am (5am BST). The same divers who managed to rescue four boys on Sunday were involved. Officials said that conditions were as good as they were on Sunday and that rain yesterday did not affect water levels inside the Cave.

End quote.

 

The coach seems to have behaved honourably, I hope he isn't attacked by idiots. I know it sounds funny but those silly cartoons of an elephant pulling the lads out or different nation flags shining hope in the Cave make me a bit emotional, such a sweet, honest sentiment that reveals something of Thai character.