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CNN Sunday Morning

Interview With Dr. Russell Dimure

Aired July 28, 2002 - 10:17   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: We want to bring you up to date on a story that we've been following all night long, way into the morning, wee early hours of the morning, as they were able to rescue the nine miners who were trapped for several days in a shaft, and they were pulled to safety about 1:00 a.m. this morning. Six of the miners were taken to a hospital, Memorial Hospital. And right now, we're going to hear an update from Dr. Russell Dimure on their condition.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. RUSSELL DUMIRE, MEMORIAL MEDICAL CENTER: The reunions were spectacular. I think the miners themselves, you know, they decided that they were going to survive or perish as a group, but one of their primary concerns was simply getting back to the families. That probably was one of the things that spurred them on through what had to be the terrible conditions down, 240 feet under the ground.

When the miners arrived here, within minutes, huge groups of families, immediate and distant families were all in the waiting rooms. They literally were here before we got the primary resuscitation done on each one of the miners. And as soon as possible, we reunited them. I mean, there were tears of joy flowing everywhere at the time, both from the miners and from the family. There's no doubt in my mind that their desire to be with their family was one of the things that spurred them on through those many hours of cold, dark entrapment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And now they want to get back to what you quoted them as saying, is "their normal life."

DIMURE: Yeah, several of them just can't wait to get back home and get back with their family, and continue on with what they consider as their normal daily life. A few of them say I can't wait to get back to work. The families, I think, are a little bit more reluctant. They're just happy to have their loved ones back. And they just want to spend time with them. They've been with them all night long. I don't think you could separate them even if you wanted to at this point.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And physically, you haven't found any major injuries or any other thing wrong with them?

DIMURE: No. Two of the miners, because of stress and exertion, were having some chest discomfort. It's probably not cardiac, but just in case we are evaluating the cardiac status of those two. And one of the miners has developed some progressive shoulder pain, which can be one of the mild manifestations of decompression sickness. So we're actually going to put him in the hyperbarric (ph) chamber and compress him. If the symptoms go away, then we'll slowly decompress him over a few hours, assuming that it was a type one decompression illness.

If not, we'll bring him out, and let him go home as planned. I'm sure that's what he wants at this point.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've treated a lot of trauma patients here, undoubtedly. I guess you've never seen anything like this.

DIMURE: Not to this scale. I mean, we have patients who are in small tunnels or spelunkers who were trapped in a cave-in, but not nine members with such widespread attention. And actually, these guys -- they were professionals, they were ready for the environment, they were dressed appropriately, they were protected appropriately, and they had a whole lot of good people on top working to get them out as quickly as possible. So their outcome was much better than the usual entrapped, cave-in trauma patient.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you can't hear, but they had a lot of people cheering for them when they came out.

DIMURE: Oh, absolutely. I mean, we had people calling on the phone here, just volunteering to be here, even though they had been on call the night before or were not on call, and there were just clapping and cheering each time one of them was taken out of the trauma room into the floor.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CALLAWAY: Incredible story. That was Dr. Russell Dimure, he is with Memorial Hospital, where six of the rescued miners were taken. The other three were taken to a hospital in Somerset. All appear to be doing well, in good condition, believe it or not, after being trapped some 76 hours. Of course, they are still in the hospital. They're looking for signs of dehydration, hypothermia. And as you heard the doctor say, some decompression symptoms. They hope to be home in one to two days.

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