After days of mounting speculation, a former Thai Navy SEAL diver broke the silence, revealing the boys were sleeping or partially-conscious as they were passed from diver-to-diver through the cave.

"Some of them were asleep, some of them were wiggling their fingers ... (as if) groggy, but they were breathing," Commander Chaiyananta Peeranarong told AFP.

"My job was to transfer them along," he said, adding the "boys were wrapped up in stretchers already when they were being transferred" and were monitored at regular intervals by doctors posted along the kilometres-long escape route.

He did not say if the coach, the only adult with the boys for nine days before they found, was able to dive and walk out unaided.

Footage released by the Thai Navy SEALs showed foreign and Thai divers using pulleys, ropes and rubber piping to haul stretchers bearing two of the barely moving young footballers to safety, their exit framed by the jagged cave overhead.

Update:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-44797035



Heavy sedation, although drastic, seems far more plausible than light medication.

You know susan they are boys and boys are gutsy .
Especially Thai boys.
I have known many Thai people and many seem to have inner spitritual as well as physical strength.

Thailand cave movie: Hollywood producers already on the scene

https://www.news.com.au/entertainmen...628693490e14ab

The film, of course, will be nothing like reality, not with "A-list stars” .....

According to Los Angeles-based Ivanhoe Pictures, they have been officially picked by the Thai government and navy to develop the film.

US media quoted the company as saying the film would be directed by Jon M Chu. He last partnered with Ivanhoe in directing the forthcoming romantic comedy Crazy Rich Asians.

Concerns are already being raised on social media that any film would focus more on the international characters while downplaying the role of Thais.

Chu insisted on Twitter that his film would be fair.

At this stage that seems unlikely. The parents say they have forgiven him, and they are grateful for the efforts he is reported to have made to keep their spirits up in the caves, in particular through meditation, which he learned during 12 years as a monk.

Coach Nop said Ake may be asked to go back to being a monk for a while, something Thais typically do as a kind of penance, or to replenish or cleanse themselves spiritually.

Such a move would make a lot of sense to Thais, and he would likely be allowed to resume life as normal after that.

Also Thailand typically does not have a 'blame culture', where a culprit must be found for any misadventure. There is a more fatalistic acceptance of things going wrong, less public clamour for accountability.

I would like to praise the extraordinary strengths and skills of the coach.

He kept his 12 charges alive and safe and unharmed for days and days, in total darkness and without food.

He also kept their spirits, courage and hopes alive all that time during what must have been terrifying and hopeless circumstances, never once knowing whether they would live or die.

How many 25 year olds could do that I wonder?