The Spirit Of Survival
Still, two recent stories stand out from the depressing crowd. The first in the story of the Meng Brothers:
From Yahoo:The Meng brothers felt pretty good about their chances of making it out of the collapsed coal mine, until the sound of digging from outside stopped.With no food or water, they were forced to eat coal and drink their own urine from discarded bottles. When they were too exhausted to try to dig themselves out, they slept huddled together in the cold and dark.
Meng Xianchen and Meng Xianyou finally clawed their way to the surface after nearly six days underground — a rare tale of survival in China's coal mines, the world's deadliest, where an average of 13 workers are killed every day.
... Doctors have said the Mengs had kidney damage from lack of water but no other major injuries after being trapped for more than 130 hours.
... Rescuers had called off efforts to save the Mengs after more than a day, and grieving family members burned ceremonial "ghost money" for the men's souls to use in the afterlife. They left food offerings of steamed buns, cakes and canned goods at the mine entrance.
Officials have said rescue work was halted after experts determined there was no chance the brothers, from the Chinese region of Inner Mongolia, had survived.
... The men, who each had 20 years of coal mining experience, clawed through nearly 66 feet of coal and rock with a pick and their hands. It took three hours to dig half a yard, they said, taking turns working because the tunnel was so narrow.Some "experts" they were! I hope my life is never placed in the hands of similar experts.
"At first we didn't feel hungry, but later on, we were so hungry we couldn't even crawl," Meng Xianchen said. "At the end, we were so hungry we ate coal and thought it tasted delicious."
They also had no water and were forced to drink urine using two empty water bottles they found in the coal shaft.
"You could only sip it a little at a time. After drinking it we wanted to cry," Meng Xianchen said.
... The Mengs said their mining days were over."Never. Never again. Other people learn a lesson from being injured. We learned our lesson from almost losing our lives. Now we just want to go home safely and put this behind us,"
The second story, while ongoing, is almost certain to end in overwhelming sorrow. From ChinaDaily:
Chinese water resources specialists have blamed the disaster largely on heavy rain and inadequate flood prevention facilities. Nine pumps are busy working near the mines, piping out 4,700 cubic meters of water per hour.
... A total of 122 medical and social workers have been organized to receive training courses on skills to address psychological crises such as loss of the beloved ones. Hu Lei, an associate medical doctor with Shandong Provincial Psychological Counseling Center, said the trainees were arranged to work in groups and each group has five members who are supposed to service one household by way of listening to the sorrows of the household members and comforting them.
"As time goes by, the hope of those trapped miners to return alive becomes dim," said Hu, "We hope that our efforts could reduce psychological harm done on relatives of the trapped miners and prevent mental breakdowns."
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