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...Russell, 34, were trapped almost a kilometer underground when a small earthquake caused a rock fall in the mine on April 25. They spent five days entombed in darkness, with only a muesli bar to share between them, before rescuers using imaging equipment made the startling discovery that the pair were still alive. Webb and Russell were still trapped eight days later, when Time went to press, but in the meantime they apparently kept cracking jokes. Spokesmen relayed that Russell had asked for a newspaper to be sent down to him: he was keen to start looking...
...months and years ahead, it might pay to take little notice of the levity they showed in the midst of it. Sandy McFarlane, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Adelaide, suggests that to maintain the morale of rescuers and the miners' families, mine spokesmen emphasized the pair's lightheartedness, while gathered media lapped it up because it added color to what was already a remarkable tale of survival. "I wondered," McFarlane says, "whether the story we were getting was saying more about the state of mind of the journalists than of the miners." When you get buried alive...
...These aren't likely to be physical. When the pair were found to be alive on April 30-sitting in a small cage that had protected them from falling rock-there were fears that lack of water could have damaged their kidneys, while the cramped conditions may have caused potentially life-threatening pressure sores. But the men were sustained by water of doubtful quality that was trickling down the rocks, and had just enough room to stretch their legs, though not to stand. Rescuers used narrow piping to deliver clean water, protein drinks, vitamin tablets, clothes and lighting...
...Though all these factors would have helped the pair stay calm while trapped, they may have little bearing on whether the men experience psychological ill effects in the future. "It wasn't in their interests to lose it [while they were underground]," says University of Queensland psychiatrist Brett McDermott, "but a lot of people, once they're in a safe place, experience a more intense emotional response." The danger for Webb and Russell is post-traumatic stress disorder, whose many and varied symptoms can take up to a decade to emerge. Relative levels of stoicism aren't pointers...
During Nate's first week at Higashi, I got a call from his teacher asking me to send a pair of sneakers with laces. Why does he need laces when there's Velcro?, I wondered. "Because learning to tie shoes is a life skill," his teacher told me. It was an "aha!" moment for me--the first of many. Higashi is committed to preparing students for lifelong inclusion in the community, so it sends the kids home, with detailed vacation goals, for eight weeks of the year. That way, they can generalize the lessons they learn in school...