Miners found alive after 25 days

By Cui Xiaohuo (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-07-14 08:18

Normally, humans can survive no more than 10 days without food or water, but three trapped miners who lived at the brink of death below ground have extended that record to 25 days.

The three miners, who were buried by mountains of rocks in southwest Guizhou province after a mine flooding on June 17, were miraculously found on Sunday. They were able to remain alive with a trickle of dirty water washed down by excessive rain since early this month.

Miners found alive after 25 days
A medical worker attends to one of the three survivors who have been trapped in a flooded mine for 25 days at a makeshift tent in Qinglong county, southwest China's Guizhou Province Sunday, July 12, 2009. [Xinhua]
More photos: Miracle Survival after 25 Days Undergound

Rescue workers cracked open a collapsed tunnel at the mine Sunday and found the three miners, who had nothing with them but their mining lights.

The three were 36-year-old Wang Quanjie and Zhao Weixing, and 35-year-old Wang Kuangwei. All come from Henan province in central China.

Zhao, who claimed he felt well after the rescue, could raise his hand from waist to chest. But photos showed the miners had become exceedingly thin with prominent bones.

"Altogether, the miners were trapped for 604 hours," rescuers said.

The three miners last night made their seven-hour mountainous trip from Qinglong in Qianxinan autonomous prefecture to the intensive care unit at a hospital in the provincial capital Guiyang, despite occasional vomiting due to dehydration.

Liang Xianquan, director of the emergency room at the Affiliated Hospital of Guiyang Medical College, which will treat the three miners, said yesterday he believes the three patients more than likely will recover despite their fragile states.

"The miners' heart and lung functions may have been greatly damaged, posing a constant threat to their lives, so doctors must still be careful," he told China Daily.

The collapsed mine is believed to have buried 11 other miners, who are now feared dead given the circumstances, after the flooding took place last month at the coal mine, killing two immediately.

The three miners were not the only miners in China who have survived for a long time after a mine collapse.

In 1998, six miners in Xingtai, Hebei province, survived 27 days against the bitter winter cold after burning everything they wore in order to feed themselves and keep themselves relatively warm.

He Sijun, who has been doing rescue work in mines for six years, said he believes that their will to live played an important role in their survival.

Another reason for their miracle was enough oxygen and a trickle of water.

He found a source of water 16 meters from where the miners were discovered.

"At the site where they were found there was water seeping in, and oxygen could get into the tunnel as well," he said.

While rescuers carried the miners on their back, Zhao Weixing, one of the trapped, said, "I want some water." Wang Quanjie, another miner, said, "I want to go out."

Xinhua contributed to the story