Photo : Royal Thai Navy Facebook Page via AP

Some good news: The final boy trapped in a water-filled cave in northern Thailand was rescued along with his youth soccer team coach on Tuesday.


The final rescue push, which lasted about nine hours and called for more than 19 divers to save the remaining four boys and their coach, marks 18 days since a dozen children and their coach were trapped in the Tham Luang caves. The announcement was made by the Thai Navy Seals early Tuesday morning. According to CNN, three Thai Navy Seal divers and a doctor who stayed with the team when they were discovered last Monday are still in the cave; they are expected to exit later today.

Two boys saved on Tuesday are currently receiving treatment from on-site medical staff, while the other two have been moved to a hospital in Chiang Rai to rejoin the rest of their team, who were rescued on Sunday and Monday. Doctors told CNN that all of them seem to be eating well, but noted that there do appear to be infections to deal with. The complicated nature of the extraction ultimately cost Royal Thai Navy special operations diver Saman Gunan his life, as he passed away last Friday in a mission to line the cave route with cached oxygen tanks.


The rescue effort was coordinated by dozens of Thai military, government, health officials, and a host of international experts. (Also there was Elon Musk, who swung by to take pictures and leave behind a “sophisticated” but useless hunk of junk.) The boys and their coach have since been invited to the World Cup finals, though it seems they’ll likely be spending their next few weeks recuperating.