Thai rescuers have revealed that five survivors managed to stay alive for 11 days in a Lao mine by eating ‘gold-panning wood’, an edible wood fungus.
"The survivors are thoroughly exhausted after being trapped for so many days," stated Kengkard Bongkawong, head of the Thai rescue team coordination unit. "Credit must go to the medical teams who provided close guidance on physical rehabilitation before we could move them.”
The trapped men reportedly consumed about two trays' worth of the fungus over the 11-day period.
At the time of this report, a joint international rescue operation had successfully extracted the first of seven trapped Lao miners by Friday night.
The first one out was identified as ‘Mued’, aged 23.
Waiting medical teams immediately provided first aid and wrapped the severely weakened survivor in thermal Mylar blankets before transferring him to a local hospital.
According to the team, the rescue operation has faced almost insurmountable hurdles, including high water levels, zero visibility and extremely narrow passages.
Divers and rescuers had to crawl through thick mud and navigate submerged channels for several hundred metres to reach the victims.
The miners were located in ‘Hall 4’ of the deep cave complex.
To extract the first survivor, divers had to navigate turbulent currents and escort him out by hand through the flooded chambers.
Despite the initial success, the mission remains far from over. Thai rescuer Chakkit Taengtang reported via social media that the rescue team temporarily paused extraction operations at 9.32pm on Friday.
The halt was called because the remaining four located miners were deemed too weak to undergo the hazardous underwater evacuation safely.
Rescuers spent the night reviewing strategies, with plans to resume extraction today.
Meanwhile, a search continues for two additional men who remain missing. Their exact location inside the cave complex is still unknown.
