Thailand cave: Boys 'sedated with ketamine' during rescue
A medical journal says the boys were given unspecified doses of ketamine during the huge rescue operation from Tham Luang cave.
Friday 5 April 2019 21:32, UK
The 12 boys who were rescued from a cave in Thailand had to be sedated with the horse tranquilliser ketamine, according to a medical report.
The Wild Boars football team and their coach became trapped inside a cave complex after a training session when a rainy season downpour flooded the tunnels in June last year.
After 18 days, the boys were saved in a huge rescue operation involving specialist divers and Thai Navy SEALs.
Australian anaesthetist Richard Harris and three Thai medics have revealed details of the rescue in a joint letter to the
Rescuers had previously refused to confirm how the boys had been sedated during the mission.
The medical journal says the boys were given unspecified doses of ketamine, a medication mainly used for starting and maintaining anaesthesia, during the rescue from Tham Luang cave in the Chiang Rai province.
Also known as party drug Special K, the ketamine was used for its effect on hypothermia and to prevent the boys from panicking during the rescue.
The report also detailed the boys' care in a field hospital immediately after they left the cave.
Their heads and necks were immobilised during the journey through the narrow channels in the cave to protect against spinal injury.
The first four boys were given sunglasses to protect their eyes because they had not been exposed to the sun for more than two weeks.
Despite all 12 of them being given blankets, the second boy to leave the cave developed hypothermia on the way to the hospital.
Dr Harris taught the divers how to administer the ketamine during different stages of the rescue, and admitted he was sure the operation would fail.
Rescuers faced a race against time to find the boys
"I didn't think it would work at all," he is reported to have told National Geographic.
"I expected the first two kids to drown and then we'd have to do something different. I put their odds of survival at zero."
When he joined the Thai rescue crew, Dr Harris convinced officials to bring the weakest boys out first, contrary to their original strategy.
The initial rescue plan involved extracting the strongest boys first while the others could remain in the cave and build up strength after going without food for more than two weeks.
Tragedy struck during the final phase of the mission when volunteer diver and former Navy SEAL Saman Kunan died while installing oxygen tanks along the passageways of the cave.
The football team and their coach entered the cave after a bike ride, but soon became trapped by rising floodwaters on 23 June.
Miraculously, they were all found alive 10 days later, hundreds of metres below the surface on an elevated rock about 4km (2.5 miles) from the cave mouth. By the 18th day, all had been extracted safely from the cave.
Doctors said the boys recovered from their ordeal quickly and left hospital shortly after the rescue.