In the second stage, doctors piled the boys with blankets, including a heated blanket, and wrapped them in foil to keep them warm. The team practiced so they could minimize the time for removal. “It was like when you change the Formula 1 wheel,” Lawthaweesawat said. In the first stage, a team stood by to carefully remove the wetsuits from the floppy sleeping children, who ranged in age from 11 to 16. On the first day of the rescue, one of the boys initially did well but became mildly hypothermic on the way to the hospital, Lawthaweesawat said.Īlarmed, the doctors established a three-stage protocol to improve their coordination. Ketamine helped to offset this deadly drop in blood pressure by constricting the blood vessels, Harris said. The heart can stop and blood pressure drops. When the body comes out of the water, the drop in pressure reduces the flow of blood, the cold heart and blood vessels don't function as well, and shock happens. When the body is submerged, water pressure compresses large blood vessels in the legs, helping send blood to the core. They were also at risk of a phenomenon known as circum-rescue collapse. ![]() Unconscious and unable to shiver, the boys were at risk of hypothermia, a dangerous drop in body temperature. One of the longest stretches required the boys to be under water for nearly 2 hours. They were brought out in three phases, according to Lawthaweesawat, with medical professionals checking on them along the way. It involved thousands of volunteers, including 50 to 60 doctors and dozens of other medical personnel.Īfter the boys were put to sleep, they were placed on flexible plastic stretchers called Skeds. The massive effort to save them captivated the world. With oxygen levels falling and more rain forecast, doctors knew they were running out of time to save the team and their soccer coach. Of course, the explanation makes perfect sense,” said Giesbrecht, who’s also an expert on hypothermia. “There’s a very high chance of panicking and dying. Watching a presentation on the rescue at a recent medical conference, Giesbrecht remembers thinking, “How did you train these kids to do the dive?” “How they did this was a national secret or something,” said Gordon Giesbrecht, PhD, who runs the laboratory for exercise and environmental medicine at the University of Manitoba, in Canada. ![]() Indeed, one member of the rescue team, a former Thai Navy SEAL, died in one of the underwater passages that were narrow channels filled with fast-flowing cold water. Wilderness rescue experts have wondered exactly how the boys, who reportedly could not swim, were brought out of the cave, an exit that required advanced diving skills. Harris devised the protocol, according to the medical team.īut using ketamine was risky, too, because the drug decreases shivering, the body’s natural defense mechanism against the cold. The drug ketamine was chosen because it allowed the boys to continue to breathe on their own and kept their blood pressure stable, according to Richard Harris, MD, an anesthesiologist who heads the Retrieval Coordination SAAS MedSTAR Emergency Medical Retrieval in Australia. Putting the boys to sleep was also to prevent “psychic trauma” after their ordeal, he said. He is also an anesthesiologist at Bumrungrad International Hospital He is the deputy secretary general of the Medical Association of Thailand in Bangkok. “If the children wake up and panic, it was dangerous too much for the children and the cave diver,” said Chanrit Lawthaweesawat, MD, in an interview.
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