Comatose Miner Receiving Oxygen Treatment in Pa.
Meanwhile, W.Va. Medical Examiner Finishes 6 of 12 Autopsies

By Tamara Jones
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 6, 2006

SAGO, W.Va., Jan. 5 -- The sole survivor of an explosion in a West Virginia coal mine was transferred to a Pittsburgh hospital Thursday for treatment in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, which doctors hope will help bring the brain-damaged father of two out of a coma.

Randal McCloy Jr., at 27 the youngest member of the 13-man crew trapped in the Sago Mine, remained in critical condition with a collapsed lung and damage to his heart, kidneys and brain, said doctors at West Virginia University Ruby Memorial Hospital, where he had been in intensive care since being pulled from the mine early Wednesday.

In Charleston, W.Va., meanwhile, the state's chief medical examiner completed autopsies on six of the 12 miners who died after a blast of undetermined origin filled the mine with noxious gases early Monday. Spokesman John Law said that the bodies and the medical examiner's findings will be released to the victims' families after the remaining autopsies are completed Friday, but he said the cause of death will not be made public.

"We are prevented by state statute from doing so," Law said.

But the medical examiner told at least one family member that several farewell notes were found with the bodies. The messages assured loved ones that no one suffered, according to the Associated Press.

The notes "said they were just going to sleep," Peggy Cohen told the AP after identifying the body of her father, Fred Ware Jr., 59. Ware's face looked peaceful, she said. "It comforts me to know he didn't suffer and he wasn't bruised or crushed."

Martin Toler Jr., 51, left a note.

"Tell all I see them on the other side," said the note, which was quoted on ABC's "Primetime" Thursday night. It was scrawled in uneven letters and signed "JR."

"It wasn't bad. I just went to sleep. I love you."

Federal and state investigators were at the mine Thursday to look for clues to what caused the explosion.

Two of the six miners who had followed the group of 13 into the tunnel but escaped told "Primetime" that intense heat and trouble breathing forced them to abandon efforts to rescue the missing crew. "You couldn't breathe. You couldn't see," one of the miners, who was not identified, said in the broadcast. "It hurt your nose. It hurt your throat."

Owen Jones choked back tears as he recounted "fear, just panic" when he realized that saving his own life meant leaving behind his brother, Jesse L. Jones, 44. "You couldn't see two feet in front of you," he said.

ABC also broadcast a recording of the erroneous report from a base camp in the mine to the command center above ground falsely reporting that rescuers had found the miners alive. "Twelve, and they're bringing them out," comes a happy voice from the base camp. "And they're all alive?" the command center tries to confirm. "As far as I know," the base camp answers.

That exchange, broadcast over speakers in the command center, quickly spread via cell phone and jubilant shouts to the families waiting at a church near the mine. After three hours of singing, celebrating and anticipating a reunion with their loved ones at any moment, the families were told that only one man had survived.

Mine officials have speculated that McCloy survived because his young age and general fitness may have helped him space out his breathing. The sound of McCloy moaning led rescuers to the far corner of the mine where 12 of the men had barricaded themselves behind a 20-foot-wide plastic sheet for 42 hours. The body of another miner was found elsewhere in the mine.

Doctors treating McCloy said he suffered brain damage and injury to other major organs as a result of exposure to carbon monoxide.

His condition has been so fragile that his wife, Anna, had been permitted just five-minute visits "every hour on the hour," said Sandra Overbey, spokeswoman at Ruby Memorial. A spokeswoman at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh confirmed that McCloy had arrived by ambulance Thursday evening.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy places a patient in a transparent airtight chamber at increased atmospheric pressures, the hospital explained in a written statement. The patient is immersed in 100 percent pure oxygen. Oxygen is dissolved into the blood and all other body tissues and fluids at as much as 20 times the normal concentration -- "high enough to sustain life with no blood at all and even with the heart stopped." Treatments are painless and last 90 to 120 minutes, the hospital said.