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Heartfelt homecoming for Chile’s rescued miners

15 October 2010 18:17 (UTC +04:00)

Baku â€“ APA. Chile’s rescued miners headed home on Friday as heroes after a 69-day ordeal deep underground during which they drank oil-contaminated water, set off explosives to alert rescuers and thought they might die, APA reports quoting â€œReutersâ€.
The first three of the 33 men were cleared to leave a hospital late on Thursday, returning to neighbors’ cheers a day after their stunning rescue from the collapsed mine in Chile’s remote northern desert.
The miners have became global media stars since their widely watched rescue and have been showered with job offers and gifts, including invitations to visit the Greek isles and Graceland and attend European football matches.
Chilean President Sebastian Pinera has challenged the men to a friendly soccer match.
"This is really incredible. It hasn’t sunk in," said 52-year-old Juan Illanes, still wearing the dark sunglasses he and his fellow miners were given to protect their eyes after being stuck since August 5 in a dark cavern.
Amid the celebrations, some of the darker details of their time in the mine began to emerge. Many of them said they thought they would die in the 17 days before searchers located them alive.
Illanes said being trapped after the mine collapse had taken him "to the limit".
Fellow miner Edison Pena, 34, a triathlete who ran 6 miles a day through the mine’s tunnels to cope with stress after the collapse, didn’t expect to see his home again.
"I didn’t think I’d make it back, so this reception really blows my mind," he said, as waiting neighbors showered him with confetti. "We really had a bad time."
The men burned tires in the first days after the mine collapse, hoping the smoke would reach the surface and alert rescuers, and set off explosives in an effort to be heard. They went up to 72 hours without food before being found alive.
The remaining 30 miners were due to head home on Friday after medical tests.
Most of the men are surprisingly healthy considering they were stuck in a wet, hot and dark tunnel for so long. One was being treated for pneumonia and others needed dental treatment, but none are suffering serious health problems.
Experts say the most lasting damage could be emotional.
"There should be concern about their psychological adjustment over time, particularly after the joy of the reunion period, which will last for a few days to a few weeks," said John Fairbank, a psychiatry professor at Duke University Medical Center.
The miners, who set a world record for survival underground, were hoisted to the surface in a metal capsule in a rescue operation that was watched by hundreds of millions of people worldwide and triggered celebrations across Chile.
A flamboyant local singer-turned-businessman has given each of them $10,000 each, while Apple boss Steve Jobs has sent all of them an iPod. There also is the prospect of book and film deals.
When the mine caved in, the men were believed to have died in yet another of Latin America’s litany of mining accidents. But rescuers found them 2-1/2 weeks later with a bore hole the width of a grapefruit.
That tiny hole became an umbilical cord used to pass down hydration gels, water and food to keep them alive until a bigger shaft could be bored to bring them up.
In a complex but flawless operation under Chile’s Atacama desert, the miners were hauled out one by one through 2,050 feet of rock in a metal capsule little wider than a man’s shoulders and dubbed "Phoenix" after the mythical bird that rose from the ashes.
It took 24 hours to extract the miners and the six rescuers who had gone down the escape shaft to help get the men out.
A top government official said the rescue operation cost about $18 million and suggested the capsule -- painted red, blue and white, like the Chilean flag -- might also go on a world tour.