When all 33 miners in Chile trapped underground for 69 days have returned to the surface after a miracle rescue, and the cameras go away, their lives are unlikely to go back to normal.
Chilean miner Edison Pena is taken on a trolley to the field hospital for a primary checkup upon surfacing from the San Jose mine, near Copiapo, Chile, October 13, 2010. (Hugo Infante/AFP/Getty Images)
Mental health workers who have looked at similar incidents are concerned about depression among the miners and their rescuers.
Brant Webb survived 14 days in a five-foot-square space with another miner after a Tasmanian gold mine collapse in 2006, in part by singing Kenny Rogers’ “The Gambler” with his companion and presumably deciding not to fold ‘em. He told CNN his emotions are more intense since his rescue, so much so that he can hardly watch a movie.
“The highs and lows are so extreme. When I’m sad, I cry. When I’m happy, I laugh a lot, probably too much. And your family needs to be ready to deal with all that.”
Webb didn’t go back underground and now works part-time in real estate. Most of the survivors of the 2002 Quecreek, Pa., mine collapse also made career changes or retired.
Rogers’ song offers another lesson: It’s probably best not to count your money when you’re sitting at the table. After the Pennsylvania mine flooded, each of the nine rescued miners received a $150,000 payment from Disney for an ABC television movie, as did Robert Long, the engineer who located their place of refuge underground. That angered some of the miners. The dispute escalated when Long made some unflattering comments about the miners. A year after the disaster, he fatally shot himself. According to ABC:
Long’s suicide is a reminder that depression is common for people who play a role in high-profile rescue efforts. Rescue workers have committed suicide, for instance, after Hurricane Andrew, the Oklahoma City bombing and the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Robert O’Donnell became a prime example of rescue-related depression. He killed himself seven years after he became a hero for helping rescue “Baby Jessica” from a well shaft in 1987.
