Thailand cave rescue illuminates world’s humanity

These past few weeks have demonstrated that the world’s humanity can come together, in a show of unselfishness and cooperation, to overcome the enormous odds against rescuing a Thailand youth soccer team, the Wild Boars. Yes, “the human condition of goodness” can indeed thrive amidst an almost impossible life-threatening situation of twelve young boys and their coach entrapped in a huge unchartered and water-filled Thailand cave known as Tham Luang. 

When the 12 boys, ages 11 to 16, and their 25 year old coach entered the non-lit limestone cavern for a brief visit on June 23rd (after a practice soccer game), they had taken only a handful of snacks, limited water, and a flashlight each with them. Though having pre-knowledge of the rainy season having already begun, the group was unaware of the flash flood that would soon prevent their way out of the approximately 6-mile-long cavern formed with many tunnels.  

After authorities were notified by the missing boys’ parents, several unsuccessful attempts were made to travel into the cavern’s dark flooded passages to find the team. On June 26, the Prime Minister called for his nation to support the rescue effort. 

The July 12 Wall Street Journal stated that British divers finally discovered the boys and their leader on July 2, sitting on high ground on a ledge in one of the cave’s tunnels, about 600 to 1,000 yards down beneath ground level and 2 miles in from the entrance. It was heard that “When they were found after 10 days by divers, so great were the challenges of bringing the group to safety through the treacherous and partly submerged (narrow) passageways, that many experts didn’t expect Thai authorities to pull it off.” 

One diver of Belgian descent recalled that in some places in the cave, the current was so strong “it ripped off his mask when he turned his head.”

To add to the difficult situation, most of the boys could not swim. However, oxygen levels were becoming depleted, and the team was growing weaker due to a lack of nutritional supplies and liquids. In fact, the team’s coach had offered his own food to the Wild Boars. He had also recommended that the team lick water from the cavern’s moist walls, instead of attempting to drink from the cave’s coffee-colored dirt-filled flood waters. Rescue plans began with pumps used immediately to begin removing the cave’s excessive rain water. 

The WSJ explained, “In the 2 1/2 weeks the boys were trapped, they (the rescuers) pumped a billion liters of water out into the surrounding farmland and river system, enough to fill an Olympic-size swimming pool 400 times over.” 

The process was done to allow certain locations within the rocky and uneven base of the cave to enable the boys to stand in their escape route, and to set up staging areas to hold valuable equipment. Three Thai Seals and an Australian doctor went into the cave to stay with the boys while others built a supply line for food, water, and medical supplies. Although one retired Thai Navy Seal died trying to lay oxygen canisters for other divers, his Navy captain commented, “We lost one life, but another 13 lives were still expecting us so we had to move forward.”  

The Thailand rescuers were soon aided by an outpouring of volunteer support from international military experts and cave-divers from the Australian Federal Police, British and Belgian divers, and U.S. survival specialists, engineers, geologists, oil industry technicians, and medical personnel from around the world.  

According to WSJ, “The effort enlisted more than 900 police officers, 10 police helicopters, 7 police ambulances, more than 700 air canisters and thousands of rescue workers.” The newspaper continues, “Volunteer cooks dished out more than 5,000 meals a day for the people on the ground. Five hundred air tanks were placed every 25 meters inside the cave for the actual rescue. Ten thousand people were involved in the planning. Hotel rooms were opened up for sleeping quarters, along with many temples. Prayers were offered everywhere.” 

One Danish diving expert commented, “I think it’s a phenomenon to see so many divers and nationalities here as well as non-divers helping.” 

One German paramedic and firefighter came to help along with a Finnish cave diver. The German volunteer stated, “I am a dad myself…so I directly feel the pain. I feel the need to help, no question.”   

Two plans involving drilling through the rock and pumping out most of the water from the cavern were both dismissed as not feasible for location and time effort. Instead, the divers began to train for cave diving rescue, a procedure much more dangerous than needed in open water. 

One Thai woman, who lived 20 miles away, volunteered daily to wash the muddy scuba diving clothing of the divers, although she did not finish the task until 3 a.m. each morning. A local female rock star, through her fan club, was able to contact a go-to-person to help the Seals gain even more info on cave diving gear and to learn more extensive cave diving techniques. When asking for 200 of the gear items including the very necessary scuba diving air tanks, regulators, and wetsuits, the celebrity actually received donations for 400. Volunteers drove the equipment from Bangkok to Mae Sai, the sight of the cave. The trapped team began to learn how to use the complex diving equipment for submerged passages. Amidst all of this giving spirit, the Thai king donated 2,000 raincoats to the effort for the now entrenched monsoon season. Even, Elon Musk, the American entrepreneur, sent his engineers from his U.S. drilling and space exploration company to help the team. His mini-submarine, however, proved too wide for the narrow cavern passages, and could not be used. 

On July 12, the Wall Street Journal reported to us “In the end, all the boys and their coach were carried and pulled out on stretchers (four at a time) by a team of 100 plus divers (using ropes attached to the team and their coach) over a three day period (July 8th, 9th, 10th, 2018).” 

The soccer team did not have to swim, after all!  But on Tuesday, a brief time after the last rescue was completed, a pump broke sending more recent torrential rains now to completely flood the cave.  

Through countries working speedily together for a common humane cause, a disaster was averted. As our German volunteer was heard to say at the end of the rescue, “It is great to see this (international) cooperation. If we would cooperate globally in every aspect like we do here, almost all of our problems would be solved.”  

Yes, the world had come to “the rescue” just in time!           

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