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Comment by sametmax | Hacker News Reader

The amazing part to me is that it was 12 kids and one adult. Between the fear and the biological needs, I wonder what kept them alive for so long.

First, the first time I fasted I was quited stressed about it, and it was in controlled, cozy environment.

Second, they didn't know if anybody would come. Not even if somebody could come. For 9 days without eating and living in their own shit in the dark, they wondered.

I'm awaiting for the unavoidable book/movie, hoping they don't try to make it epic and get into real details about this.

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I bet literally being a team helped out. It's not just a random group of people. They all know each other, they know each other's personalities, and there's a natural cohesion to win (i.e. not die!) together.

Possibly, especially since they were with a coach. He if kept it up, then it could have helped a lot.

The coach.

He shared what little rations they had, and his condition was visibly worse than the children by the time they were found.

He also helped them by teaching them meditation, so as not to focus on their hunger.

> He also helped them by teaching them meditation, so as not to focus on their hunger.

Learning meditation is hard. Learning meditation when you are scared, hungry and in such a bad situation is extra hard.

So if the guy pulled it off with 12 terrorized famished kids for 9 days, he deserves his own temple.

People in general are able of amazing deeds under the threat of death.

Unfortunately it's why we are able to wage war. Was watching a documentary on the Vietnam war the other day and one guy was describing how he felt like an automaton that was focusing only on survival, which kept him from going insane, while another guy was describing how he felt no pain from his bullet injuries while trying to stay alive alone in the jungle for 3 days, only feeling pain after he was rescued.

But yeah, this coach is a hero for sure, I'm so glad they made it out.

The Vietnam War, by Ken Burns?

Watched that episode with the South Vietnam veteran recalling that episode where he was left for dead (literally, by his own allies AND adversaries), crawled through the jungle for 3 days and only then felt the pain and smelled the nasty odor of the rotting flesh.

Not to belittle his accomplishment, but it's the times of great hardship where the search for meaning flourishes. See Viktor Frankl. It is the gift hidden in the horror.

Well, he was a former monk.

He was sent to a monastery when he was 12 and stayed for 10 years.

The coach is the key. His parents passed away when he was young and he was brought up by his grandmother. He was a monk for about 10 years. He taught them how to meditate constantly even during training when the kids couldn't control their temper. This crisis puts the kids into the test, proved the power of meditation and team spirit.

Let's not forget that the coach was the one who led them into the caves in the first place.

Hindsight is 20/20. I guess nobody should ever do anything because it always has a tiny chance to go wrong?

The coach probably didn't even take a wrong decision based on the information available at the time (it isn't rain season yet).

Err, no.

If you plan to enter deep into a huge cave, you check the weather forecast. Rainy season or not. And you don't enter if you see a chance of rain.

He failed on this one, and a man is dead because of it.

Now I'm don't think he should be blamed for it. It would be very unproductive.

But we certainly should make it a cautionary tale.

>I'm awaiting for the unavoidable book/movie.

Hollywood producers are already on the ground http://www.newsweek.com/hollywood-producers-head-thai-cave-r...

The coach then will be an american living in Thailand, half the team will be girls, the sport will be american football instead of soccer, one of the rescuers will be a woman who happens to be an ex-girlfriend of the coach, there will be a bad guy from the government or some company that wants to leave them in the cave because it's cheaper... and Elon Musk's device will save the day.

> there will be a bad guy from the government

Elon Musk is ahead of you - he has his government villain already: https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1016684366083190785/phot...

The rumor is that The Rock is going to play the coach. Kevin Hart will play all 12 boys.

>The rumor is that The Rock is going to play the coach. Kevin Hart will play all 12 boys.

I would actually pay to see this.

...And it's already made 400M.

Ha, you nailed it. I hate how plausible this is.

It'll probably take place somewhere in the US and white wash it with white actors. Maybe they'll make one of the kids (a girl) Asian to give a little nod to the original story.

and that girl will be helping hand - because when she grows up, she wants to be a doctor

When contact was first made, they had no idea how long they had been in there and asked "how long have we been here".

Sat in the dark, with no night and day, the bodies internal clock gets shot to pieces. They would have had no idea whether they had been there 3 days or 30

Not being able to quantify doesn't mean you don't sufer from it.

> For 9 days without eating and living in their own shit in the dark

Not to mention the cold.

There's a hero-story about the coach that's yet to be told I reckon.

Caves are generally the average yearly temperature of the area they are found in, also given that the water was rainwater and not spring water I’d imagine that unless the boys were like waste deep in water the entire time they were probably rather warm given the tropical location of Thailand.

Somewhere it was mentioned that the temperature in the cave was about 23°C (73°F).

Oh wow. I wouldn't have expected that deep underground in a flooded cave at all!

A story Mark Wahlberg will be happy to tell.

> The amazing part to me is that it was 12 kids and one adult. Between the fear and the biological needs, I wonder what kept them alive for so long.

You can go a few weeks without food. The cave is likely at a consistent enough temperature that you're not going to freeze to death (sweating is more likely to be your real issue), so the only real constraint is potable water.

It's also been commented that the children had no idea they were trapped for as long as 9 days. Quite likely, without any source of natural light, they lost track of time, which certainly would help ease some of the panic.

People can live over 60 days without food, so maybe that part isn't so unexpected.

Water of course is a different story..I believe after 48 hours severe dehydration sets in...after 3 days...kaput.

> People can live over 60 days without food, so maybe that part isn't so unexpected

It's not a physiological problem. It's a psychological one. When you ate everyday all your life, not eating is scary.

> I believe after 48 hours severe dehydration sets in...after 3 days...kaput.

You can live more than 3 days without water. Either with training, of because the conditions help (you don't move much, temperature and humidity are favorable, you don't eat, etc).

There are cases were human lived for 9 days without water.

But they had water near them so that was out of the equation.

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