Australian miners ready to cut legs off to survive

By Michael Perry

SYDNEY (Reuters) – Two Australian miners said on Sunday
they felt like “trapped rats” when they were stuck deep
underground for 14 days and had planned to cut off each others
pinned legs with small knives to free themselves.

“Yeah, we were prepared to take our leg off if we had to,
to have ourselves free,” Brant Webb told Australia’s Nine
television network, the first time they have told their story
since being rescued on May 9. “I was just going off me head, I
just thought I was a caged rat.”

Miners Todd Russell, 34, and Webb, 37, were trapped almost
a kilometer underground after a cave-in on April 25 at the
Beaconsfield Gold Mine on the southern island state of
Tasmania.

A third miner, Larry Knight, was killed in the cave-in.

Russell and Webb were trapped in a small wire cage, under
tonnes of rock, and survived on drinking mineral laced water
until rescuers managed to dig a small tunnel to feed them fresh
water and food.

Webb bathed Russell’s injures from the cave-in two to three
times a day using medicines squeezed through the small tunnel.

“He had a lot of rock bites,” said Webb.

Digging through rock five times as hard as concrete
rescuers freed the two miners on May 9. The two walked
uninjured from the mine shaft in what they described as “The
Great Escape.”

LAST BREATHS

Webb and Russell said they were both buried under rock,
their legs pinned, following the cave-in and had to dig each
other out with their bare hands.

“Both my legs were pinned,” said Russell. “I kept saying to
Brant I got to get out, I gotta get this rock off me.”

“I was getting toward my last breaths. The pressure was
getting that bad around the chest and cavity areas … I was
starting to vomit fluids,” he said.

“I was aware with a crush injury we had to get me leg free
within a four hour period because the toxins in the body can
transfer and kill you,” said Russell, a trained mine rescuer.

Webb said both miners were buried under so much rock that
they could not see each other, despite being within arms length
inside the wire cage.

“There was a couple of feet between us, but I couldn’t see
him. I was buried. I was buried up to my armpits, so all I
could do was say, ‘look buddy we’ve got to hold on,” said Webb.

Webb said he was falling in and out of consciousness as he
dug with his bare hands, but as he removed one pile of rocks
more would fall into the cage.

Eventually Webb freed himself and began digging out
Russell.

Russell said he thought he was going to die.

“I said to my self, I am not dying here, I’m not dying
here. It would take more than a bit of rock to stop me,”
Russell said.

“We made a pact from that day, ‘it’s just Brant and I’, and
that pact is going to stay as strong as it is now for the rest
of our lives,” he said.

Once freed from the rubble the miners said cave-ins
continued for days. As they awaited their rescue the two men
said they wrote letters to their wives and children. Webb wrote
messages on his cigarette packet. Russell wrote on his
overalls.

Once a small tunnel, which fed them food and water, reached
them they were able to sent messages to their families.

“We had tears, we had laughter, we showed each other
letters, we shared everything,” said Webb.

To relieve the stress as they listened to rescuers setting
off explosions to reach them, the two miners cracked jokes and
sang the only song they both knew — Kenny Rogers’ The Gambler.

The miners story has captivated Australia and international
media. The two miners sold their story to Nine and its
affiliated magazines for a reported A$2.6 million. ($1.89
million). They are also reported to be flying to the United
States to be interviewed by a major television network.

($1=A$1.37)