Washington (dpa) - A NASA flight surgeon praised the ongoing
rescue of the 33 miners who have been trapped underground for more
than two months Wednesday, but said much still remains to be done as
officials continued to haul the men up to the surface.
James Polk, who consulted with Chilean officials as part of the
NASA team that provided advice about spending months in confined
spaces, cautioned that problems could still arise.
"It's not unlike a football game, we are at half time right now
and you don't want to let your guard down," he said in an interview
with CNN. "You've still got a couple more parts of this game to play
and folks could still have some medical ailments there, some
complications. There still could be some engineering complications."
He advised officials not to let their guard down as the rescue
moves forward and to continue taking each step one at a time.
"They broke this up into each segment, they tackled them, they
paid attention to all, even the smallest nuance and they implemented
the advice and sought out the experts," he said. "And they did just a
fantastic job, although there's a long way to go yet, things are
looking very good."
Psychologists have also been worried about how the miners will
emotionally recover from the traumatic experience.
Chilean government and mining officials consulted with NASA to
learn lessons from astronauts who had spent long periods in small,
contained environments.
NASA administrator Charles Bolden released a statement saying that
agency's experience in space at maintaining physical and
psychological health "proved to be valuable" advice provided to
Chilean authorities.
"I am proud of the people of this agency who were able to bring
the experience of spaceflight down to earth when it was needed most,"
Bolden said. "As the drama of this rescue continues to unfold before
us, we pray for the safe return of each and every miner."
"There is a lot of hard work ahead for rescuers, but the Chilean
government and the people of that great nation should be praised for
their steadfast determination," Bolden added.
Copyright 2010 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH