We’re okay! Thai cave boys smile and wave from hospital beds as footage emerges of their daring rescue and new details of operation are revealed
The 12 youth footballers and coach freed from cave in Chiang Rai, north Thailand
The final four and coach came out after being trapped in flooded cave for 18 days
Video shows the children waving from their hospital beds in isolation unit
Parents have been able to see children through glass windows, but not hug them
Moment they are being carried out of cave also seen for first time in new video
Leader of U.S. rescue crew revealed the children dived in zero visibility
By SARA MALM
DAILYMAIL.COM
11 July 2018
The 12 Thai boys rescued from a flooded cave are seen cheerfully waving from their sickbeds in a new video, as stunning images of them being carried out from the depths on stretchers has also been released for the first time.
The hospital video sees some of the boys making ‘horn’ and ‘victory’ signs, while appearing to smile from behind their green surgical masks in an isolation unit in Chiang Rai, northern Thailand.
The last remaining four school boys and their coach, who had been trapped in the Tham Luang cave complex for 18 days, were carried out on stretchers on Tuesday at the end of a three-day operation.
They do not look shell-shocked or stunned despite a their harrowing stretch inside a dank, dark cave followed by a risky rescue operation that was dubbed ‘Mission Impossible’.
The youngest, 11, appear asleep under a crisp white sheet while others, including their 25-year-old soccer coach, sit in bed.
Nurses are seen chatting with them and the boys respond with the customary Thai sign of respect – hands pressed together while bowing the head.
The video also sees some of their parents – who are still not allowed to touch, let alone hug, their sons due to the risk of infection – crying and waving to them from the other side of the glass windows.
The footage was shown during a press conference held by the rescue chief, acting Chiang Rai Governor Narongsak Osottanakorn, who praised the children as ‘heroes’.
He said he believed the Wild Boar FC players would ‘grow up to be good citizens’, and added that they are ‘healthy and strong’.
‘Don’t need to worry about their physical health and even more so for their mental health,’ said Chaiwetch Thanapaisal, director of Chiang Rai Prachanukroh Hospital.
‘Everyone is strong in mind and heart,’ he said at the news conference.
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