A Year After the Rescue, Do Chile's Miners Need Another?

[ChandlerJr]

It was Chile's own man-on-the-moon moment. In fact, for those of us who were there, last year's miraculous rescue of 33 trapped Chilean miners seemed in some ways eerily, wonderfully similar to a moonwalk. It played out in the cold dead of night on a remote and rocky desert landscape that might as well have been the lunar surface. The narrow, specially built capsule that brought the men up from 2,300 feet (700 m) below the earth seemed as daring a contraption as an Apollo module. The large, dark sunglasses they wore hid their eyes like space helmet visors. A billion people the world over watched the feat on television.
A lot has come crashing down to earth in the intervening year, for the rescued and rescuers alike. Thursday, Oct. 13, a first-anniversary commemoration of the rescue operation was held at the site of the San José gold and copper mine near Copiapó, in Chile's northern Atacama Desert. It was there that los 33 had spent 70 days underground after the mine's collapse – the first 17 of those days struggling to stay alive before authorities located them. But amidst yesterday's celebration, it was hard to ignore the fact that many of the miners' post-rescue expectations have since caved in as well – and it was even harder to disregard it as news spread that one of the men, Carlos Mamani, 26, wasn't there because he'd been arrested in Copiapó the night before on domestic violence charges, according to the Santiago daily El Mercurio.

A year ago many in the world were riveted by the human drama of this story, now it's just a dim memory.


Read more: http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/2011/10/14/a-year-after-the-rescue-do-chiles-miners-need-another/#ixzz1ap0QDCc8

[murielm99]

1. I am not surprised that they are having difficulties,

everything from sleeplessness to aggression to PTSD.

The mine owners should pay them a pension, and should provide them with the medical and psychiatric care they need - for life.

Maybe they won't reap the wealth they expected, but they deserve help in getting healthy and sane.

Gum disease? How odd is it that so many of them have gum disease after being trapped in the mine?

Here's hoping they get what they need.

[canetoad]

2. What came crashing down

Was the construct built by a voyeuristic media.

I've followed these guys pretty closely since the first sign they were alive. They are not suffering from the time underground but from the media attention, built up hopes, unrealistic expectations and the stress of plain working men being turned into celebrities through no fault of their own.

[Bonobo]

3. That's not all the truth or even 10%.

These guys thought they were dead for certain. They planned to eat each other. I would say their problems go WAY BEYOND dealing with unexpected celebrity status,

Chilean Miners Contemplated Suicide, Cannibalism

(CBS) Victor Zamora says he’d rather be dead. It takes six pills a day for Alex Zega to be able to talk to people, but he says the slightest sound startles him and he still can’t concentrate on work or go into a small space. Mario Sepulveda, once the miners’ exuberant leader, is on heavy medication these days.

Four months after 33 Chilean miners were rescued from a half-mile underground – where they lived in daily fear of death for 69 days – doctors say all but one of them have experienced serious psychological problems.

Bob Simon interviewed several of them for a “60 Minutes” report to be broadcast this Sunday, Feb. 13 at 7 p.m. ET/PT.

After two weeks of rationing an inadequate emergency food supply, the 33 were down to one can of tuna, a staple they had been eating just one teaspoon each every 48 hours. “I said to a friend, ‘Well, if we are going to continue suffering, it would be better for us to all go to the refuge, start an engine and with the carbon monoxide, just let ourselves go,’” says Zamora, who thinks all of them would have gone along with that had rescuers not sunk a shaft near them at day 16. He did not consider it suicide. “It was to not continue suffering. We were going to die anyway,” he tells Simon.

Most of the men are paying the price now. Vega, a mining mechanic, is building a wall around his home but he cannot explain why. The anxiety continues despite his medication and he he worries about his future. “I’ve tried to work fixing a car, but I lose my concentration very quickly. I forget things…”