The Chilean mining accident at work

One's heart must go out to the 33 Chilean miners who, after suffering a horrific accident at work, are trapped underground with no realistic prospect of being raised up to the light of day before the end of November.

A full 2,200ft below ground level, the miners were feared lost for 19 days until they were finally found. When rescuers eventually made contact with them, they were greeted with the blessed and stoic words, "Shift foreman speaking."

In fact, first to make contact with the trapped miners was none other than the Chilean president, Sebastian Pinera.

The Chilean health minister said of the conversation, ""We were pretty much able to tell them and they've accepted that they're not going to be rescued before Fiestas Patrias [the country's independence day on 16 September].

He added: "I think that we've been able to talk with them very frankly and they've accepted it and they're calm and they want to work well with us."

The miners now have been told to face up to the likelihood that it will be at least four months before rescuers succeed in boring a hole which is wide enough and deep enough for them to be rescued.

In the meantime, they are receiving rations, letters and gifts through a tiny borehole roughly five inches in diameter. But they mustn't eat too much, extraneous girth could result in the miners being unable to squeeze back to the surface when a rescue shaft is drilled.

However, the food they do receive must come as a huge relief; for 19 days the men's only sustenance was two spoonfuls of tuna, a sip of milk and a biscuit every two days.

Remarkably, after being assessed by a psychologist, it has been found that the men are in a good state of mental health. "It is a pleasant surprise because they are in much better condition than we had ever hoped. We were anticipating a much more distressed bunch of men, perhaps even without the capacity to reason and with slow reactions and limited hearing and eyesight, but this prediction has been confounded," said the chief psychologist of the rescue team.

In the meantime the miners and their families must endure the considerable task of keeping their spirits up. Love letters are being exchanged from sunlit world to subterranean; food parcels are being sent; games are being delivered; above all, hope must be carefully tended.

It is also likely, once the ordeal is over, that compensation claims will be started for the accident at work. But for now all we can do is wish the miners and their families the very best.

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