I don’t think it would bother me too much (though of course the additional risks might!). I’m not claustrophobic and an hour really isn’t that long. If I can have music on the way down as a distraction, that would help a lot, though. I’d get bored otherwise!
I’ve had an MRI before and it was actually rather entertaining - the machine kept making these rhythmic noises that I imagined as really, really bad dance/techno music, and I kept having to refrain from laughing!
You’d be surprised at what you can do when you have to.
I recall reading a study about phobic people who experience life in WWII German concentration camps. These were people who had debilitating phobias. For instance, if they saw a snake or mouse they would freeze in terror and not be able to function.
The odd thing was after the camps were liberated, about 95% of the people with these debilitating phobias came out phobia free. They were no longer afraid.
And other studies also point to this. People who undergo horrifying situtations and live through them often find they are no longer afraid of other things and lose their unrelated phobias.
So being trapped in a mine for months might just cause them to lose any fear of close in space they might have
I read somewhere (Wikipedia?) that the cage will have a bottom that can be opened in an emergency if it gets stuck. The person inside can exit out the bottom.
I also read that the guys have to lose weight so that they fit in the cage! They’ve all lost weight already…not sure how many have to trim down further to fit in the cage.
I’d do it tho. Not claustrophobic.
The article says 15-20 minutes.
Tranquilizers shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve heard mention of using blindfolds as well.
I’m sure CNN will be all over that when they start coming out. It was quite riveting to watch those WV (or PA?) coal miners being rescued a number of years ago.
No biggie for me. At 21 inches, it is the same size as the inside of the hull of our six person outrigger (Hawaiian) canoe, in which I have been known to snooze on occasion.
I’ve been stuck a couple of times caving – once so tight that I had to work my way through by exhaling and then only breathing very shallowly, and another time where it was so tight that it stripped my pants and a bit of skin off. Those instances didn’t bother me at all.
If you ever want an interesting sensation, get in a cage at a deep mine with a full shift crew stuffed in with you like riders on the Tokyo subway in rush hour. Then the cage drops – whee! It’s not like a sky-scraper elevator – it’s like an amusement park ride the way it drops. It isn’t a smooth ride, and it’s pitch black like you’ve never experienced before, but you don’t have to worry about keeping your balance, for you are wedged in there as solidly as sardines in a can.
My guess is that the miners will experience nothing but relief and joy as they each ascend in the capsule, particularly after what the went through for the first seventeen days. I take my hat off to them for their patience and determination.
Well, I imagine if I were starving to death in a concentration camp I would lose my fear of rats in a real hurry too.
I’m a caver. I would love it. I used to be slightly claustrophobic when I was a kid, but if you love caves, you get over that quite quickly.
I’ve gone through some incredible squeezes in the earth. Spaces so tight that it felt easier to get through after exhaling all of my air. And I’ve gone through those same spaces when they were sumps, submerged under icy water.
To avoid looking like an internet tough guy, I will readily admit that I would never walk steel beams like these fellas.
I once heard an interview with a retired SEAL senior chief. He had served in a winter warfare platoon and done all sorts of badass and profoundly difficult, stressful, dangerous work, but he said that in his mind, the three hardest jobs in the SEAL teams were winter warfare, counter-terrorism, and anything that had anything to do with delivery vehicles. He described it as “Cramming four 200+ pound monsters in a space big enough for one guy to be uncomfortable in, cramming all the equipment you can fit around them, cycling the hatch shut, and then sitting there for 10-14 hours unable to really move or do anything beyond trade insults with your teammates.”
One day I will meet you and paddle with you.
Huh? What does this have to do with the rest of the thread?
Shagnasty, your way would actually make the ride WORSE for me.
I’m pretty claustrophobic, so when I went for an MRI I knew it would freak me right the hell out, so I closed my eyes and kept them closed until they let me out. Cats calm down too, when in transit etc. and in unfamiliar places, if they don’t have to see what’s going on.
If the cage bottom opened that would be helpful. I’d need serious drugs to function and it would be best if I was knocked unconscious so as not to remember any of it.
People don’t understand claustrophobia. It can trigger a massive panic attack and no amount of mental reasoning will work if egress is not available. I suspect the miners don’t suffer from it by default so they should hold up well. The doctor may be a different story.
One hopes the doctor would be pre-screened for claustrophobia. S/he’s also probally either; being payed very well, a poor doctor, or in the military.
You’re looking at it all wrong. Don’t think about being in that cage… Think about being the last guy down there. Alone. For an hour or two. Nobody around. Nobody to watch your back. 2 miles of rock separating you from the nearest human. Waiting for the cage to come back.
What was that noise? Who’s there?
Oh, and I’d have no issues with the cage. Not a caver, but I’m completely unworried by tight spaces that have no spider webs. Or high spaces with no spider webs.
I would bet more on that last guy smiling and saying: “Finally;… some me time!”
If it was the only way out, I’d be on that thing in a second. But the doctor who is knowingly going down there? Tremendous respect for him. (Or her, but I’m assuming it will be a man.) I often find myself getting irritated by the overuse of the word “hero”, but THAT is heroic.
I think I’d need a cyanide capsule just in case.
Let’s hope that person never saw The Descent.
And then what? You’re halfway up, it gets stuck, you exit the bottom, and fall 1000 feet? Delightful.
Good, but he shouldn’t wear a gasmask or else he could be taken for a turkey.
I’d imagine large mining companys have doctors on staff to attend to injured workers in the mines. Seems like such a doctor would make more sense then one in the military.
