On Friday May 10th we spoke with several faculty and other professionals who were involved at different levels with the Tham Luang Cave rescue. The cave rescue occurred in 2018 after 12 young Thai soccer players and their coach became trapped in Tham Luang due to rising water levels following a large storm. These boys were several kilometers deep into the cave and had no way of getting food or clean water for what amounted to several weeks. The incident garnered national attention and required support from individuals of over 20 countries including the US, England and Australia. After 18 days, the boys and their coach were all rescued and in addition to being a borderline miracle, the rescue showed the incredible feats that could be achieved upon increased international collaboration.

The first gentleman we spoke to was Chaiporn Siripornibul and he works as a Geologist and Cave Specialist for the Thai Department of Mineral Reoudces. He gave us a background on the formation of caves and summary of the processes used to save the boys trapped in the cave. Later in the afternoon we had the opportunity to meet three individuals who were extremely involved in the project by the names of Vern Unsworth, Josh Morris, and Mario Wild. Vern is a professional cave diver which is a discipline that is both very rigorous and very hard to find people who dedicate their lives to the art. Upon arrival to the site, he realized the severity of the situation and called in 2 of his greatest cave diving colleagues to assist in the planning and rescue procedures on site. After a few more days, conditions continued to worsen but the British cave divers were able to locate the boys and begin bringing them food and other resources. What became an even greater challenge was figuring out how to bring the boys several kilometers out of the cave through the darkness and ceiling high waters. Some insisted that the boys be left there until the flooding came back down, but Vern believed that there was no chance the boys would survive if they were left there much longer as the conditions could become even worse. With the assistance of people from 23 nations, including Josh Morris who came with the American PJ’s, a new plan was developed to bring the boys out of the cave. Josh Morris was instrumental to the completion of the rescue as he spoke both Thai and English and was able to help bridge the cultural gap that negatively impacted some progress early on. It took many experienced cave divers, the American PJ’s, the Thai military, and thousands of volunteers who took the time to provide food, lodging, and other resources to those supporting the rescue. There are reportedly only 3 people in the world who are proficient cave divers and anesthesiologists but one was on site and provided the boys with drugs to prevent them from going into shock while in the pitch black underwater conditions. After many hours of constant diving, each boy was brought out of the cave by the 18th day. The expedition was not completed without any fatalities however as a member of the Thai equivalent of their navy seals died while completing a dive to the boys in the days prior. This rescue is evidence of the fact that with shared knowledge and collaboration across cultures and disciplines, any problem can be solved even one as dangerous and complex as the Tham Luang cave rescue.