First Chile Miners Leave Hospital, Doctors Amazed

Last Chilean miner Luis Urzua (L) to be rescued celebrates next to Chilean President Sebastian Pinera (R) after arriving in the capsule Fenix to the surface at the San Jose mine. Photo by EPA/BGNES

Three of the 33 men rescued after 69 days trapped in the San Jose mine in Chile have been discharged from hospital and doctors say their condition is nothing short of a miracle.

Copiapo hospital's deputy medical director Dr Jorge Montes said the three men who left would be allowed to carry out physical activity and would need sunglasses only if they were exposed to intense light.

However, he warned that "the psychological condition of the patients is something we cannot predict".

The miners had been told they would need to be held in the hospital for 48 hours but Health Minister Jaime Manalich announced earlier that their condition was so good that many would be able to leave within 24 hours. He said their condition was nothing short of a miracle.

Doctors said all the miners had responded well to treatment and many more of them would go home on Friday.

The men were hauled to the surface one at a time in a complicated and dramatic operation that took about 22 hours from the time the first miner reached the ground to when the last miner surfaced.

They were winched up a narrow shaft in a metal capsule from where they had been trapped 625m (2,050 feet) below ground since the mine partially collapsed on 5 August.

Speaking from hospital less than 24 hours after his rescue, miner Richard Villarroel described the trip in the capsule as "calm".

"Everything was well-prepared. I came up listening to music," he said as cited by BBC.

He and the 32 other miners have set a world record for surviving the longest time trapped underground.

President Pinera met the miners in the hospital and promised a review that would lead to a "very radical change" affecting the health and safety of workers in mining as well as the transport, fishing and construction industries.

He said it was impossible to guarantee that Chile would never face such an accident in the future.

"But we can guarantee one thing: never again in our country will we allow working in conditions so inhuman and so unsafe as happened in the San Jose mine and many other places in our country."

He told the miners there will be a big celebration for them on 25 October, in the capital, Santiago.

He also invited them for a game of football the same day against the officials who had helped rescue them.

Pinera joked that the winners would be allowed to live at the presidential palace, La Moneda, while the losers would have to go back down the mine.

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