surface brought to the surface just before 11:00 eastern last night all the way to now at 6:00 a.m. the jubilation has continued even though people have been up for >> there was no such thing as an alarm this morning watching from 11:00 last night when the first miner was brought up. carl penhaul is on the ground in copiapo and will join us in just a couple minutes. an interesting story with the man in the wheel coming up now. you can watch the progression of the capsule by watching that wheel on the top. it had been moving at a fair clip a couple moments ago and now slowing down probably an indication it's getting close to the surface. a guy inside. interesting story. he will be greeted by his girlfriend. she sent a proposal of marriage while he was trapped

underground. they have two children together. wedding bells will ring in the not too distant future when claudio comes back up. >> the lights are on as rescuers are preparing. you can see one of them sort of moving around there in the front. it looks like we're about to see this capsule, the fenix capsule surface again with claudio inside. we don't know much about his health. we have little blurbs telling us about some of the miners. first brought to the surface were strongest. the middle were mentally not holding up as well as others or had chronic condition. we don't know what his condition is. we know that he's 34 years old. we'll see in just a moment what he looks like. everyone else brought up to the surface even miner number seven

that they were worried about because of his diabetic condition looked great when he came up. >> they were going to bring up strongest first and once they had medical problems and even ones with medical problems look like they're in fabulous shape. carl penhaul has been watching this unfold for the last couple months. what are your observations from being there on the ground as we watch this all unfold this morning? >> reporter: i think there are a number of observations. my first is just the wau faow f and how much they have planned every detail right down to television transmission of it. i was absolutely amazed last night when this rescue mission got under way not only to see those live pictures from the surface. we knew those were coming. what we did not know was that as soon as that fenix capsule broke into the underground mind shaft that the pictures would cut to a

live feed of the fenix capsule going down into the ground absolutely amazing. i'm amazed by the kind of condition these miners look in as they come out to the surface. you know, we saw the first man up step out of that cage and he was hugged by the president who promised to hug them. >> i know it's hard to see the video as it's happening. we just saw miner number eight brought up to the surface and fenix capsule has just been opened. you can hear cheers. people chanting chile as we see him. he looks in good shape as well from what we can see. >> he certainly does. his girlfriend will be there to greet him and sort of put a seal of a i can on that proposal of marriage if you will that she sent down in the early going.

let's take a moment and listen to this as this moment unfolds. [ applause ]

>> there was a hug for the ages and one that brings a tear to the eye. karl penhaul, as you were saying, just the wow factor of watching all of this is so moving. >> reporter: absolutely, john. i can tell you something. this is one of the women that we have got to know very well over the last seven weeks that we've been here. i can tell you now, claudio's ribs and shoulders must be aching from that hug because

christina has so much emotion and is such a bubbly woman. she said she was going to give a huge hug. she's an absolutely passionate woman. they have been together now ten years. like a lot of these miners' stories, a lot of these miners and their wives have got together and maybe formalized their union with a civil marriage but in that time under ground these miners have really had time to reflect their partners on the surface have had time to reflect and there have been a number of proposals by miners to their lives. let's do the right thing. let's have a catholic wedding when we get out. this is one of the cases in point. claudio and christina but also what i find amazing is we spent so many weeks talking to the female counterparts on the surface, wives and sisters and

to see the men folk that we've been talking about for so many weeks and now to see them almost in person certainly in the natural light of the night or the day is absolutely amazing. take another look at these pictures. loaded on the gurney there about to be taken into the field hospital that's up there by the extraction point and again he looks in good shape. thumbs up as he comes out of the capsule. what about that hug? isn't that the way would you want to be greeted after 70 days under ground, john? >> my goodness. here's what she said. she said this is what christina told reporters. i'll never do much with my hair but i got blonde highlights and shortened it. i gave myself a complete makeover. >> she's going to have a baby

doll outfit for her post-rescue reunion. good for them. she had it all planned out. again, they have an 8 year old and 1 year old. they say the first thing they will do is fix a date to get married. >> karl penhaul with us this morning. we'll get back to you. let's talk to george from columbia university. when you think of the idea that he had been under ground for 69 days and during the hardships they must have been down there, we can't even begin to understand what they've gone through, and you see what great shape he's in and you see that hug from his now fiance, are you surprised to see how great emotional shape and physical shape these men are in? >> i'm not really surprised. i think that most people are -- human beings are quite resilient. this has been a remarkable event

on all counts. they've been through an enormous amount. they've been through a traumatic event. chronic stress. they've been through this very demanding trip up to the surface. the entire time they've had a period where nobody was in touch with them which would have been incredibly stressful. they've also had all kinds of things going to them. they had the cohesion of being together. they had their training and preparation and connection with the surface feeding to them and sending them support and the sense of being connected and sharing this experience with others. all of those things make this a remarkable event. >> this is the other interesting aspect. a lot said we'll make changes in this case with this couple we're going to get married. they've been together for a long

time. decided they will get married. when something like this happens, it just sort of changes your priorities. is that something that then lasts long-term or do you sort of fall back into your own ways as the months and years goes by? >> it depends on the individual. for a lot of these men they will fall back into a normal routine and that could even be depressing. don't want to sound too negative about it but normal every day life could be mundane and disappointing after this. not necessarily. there will be a variety of reactions. >> we are talking about soldiers and marines coming back from tours of duty in iraq and afghanistan and when they get back home they find that things have very much changed for them because the situation is so different. obviously these guys weren't at war but they were suffering intense stress of a different kind. do you think it will be similar? >> that's an interesting analogy. one of the similarities between war and this event if you can make a connection is that

they've been underground for two months which is a long time. they've been coping and finding ways to deal with what they've been confronted with. now they have to turn that off. that's not so easy. two months is a long time. whatever they've done has become almost reinforced and habitual. >> they worked together and relied on each other for 33 days. when i read about some of them, one of the men is the only one from bolivia that will go back there and not mine anymore. how about those connections between all of them that were together. will it be a separation? >> you see connections from soldiers together at wartime. something similar would have happened. it won't be as exciting as all this. it won't be completely positive because there were dynamics down there certainly. fortunately they knew each other as a group and they had an already existing group dynamic with leaders and structure to it

which is very important. probably not everybody was thrilled with the situation down there. and the roles. there may be some bitterness. that's almost inevitable. in general the sense of what they did together will last probably for the rest of their lives. >> some of the miners said one of the things they're going to miss about being back up on the surface if you could miss anything about being trapped underground was the comradery they had with their colleagues down there. what about the job that the chilean government and others have done over the last two months to keep these men from going out of their minds? >> i think it's remarkable. they have sent very strong messages, very positive messages, which is really what you want to hear. you want to hear that we're looking for you. we're looking out for you. we're going to do everything we can. there was still that period where they waited for word and there must have also been the

enduring stress and strain of not knowing if they would ever really be rescued. even right now they are probably some of the guys down there are wondering if they're still going to get out. >> you're right. i just really feel for the ones that are some of the last to leave. i know that we talked a lot about the order. the last one is the foreman of the group. he's the one who chose to go last. he wanted to make sure everybody was up safely. he's 54 years old. it will be interesting because as more leave, the ones that are left down there probably have a lot going through their minds as well. we're watching the prep of the capsule for number nine and this is something we are going to be watching for because mario gomez, 63, he's the oldest miners. mining since he was 12 years old. he's the one who has lung disease related to his time in the mine but also suffers -- he only has two fingers on one hand

because of a mining accident as well. >> this guy has obviously given a lot to mining. it was just by happenstance he was there. he wanted to test drive a new truck. took the truck into the mine and found himself down there in the collapse. as they prep this capsule to send it back down again, the trip down takes about 11 or 12 minutes and then they will probably be in there for another 15 or so as they get mario gomez prepped and ready to go and another 12-minute ride back up to the surface. about a half hour from now we expect him to come back up. what about going back down into the mines. we've heard the bolivian miner say that's it. i'm giving up mining. do you think a good number of miners will say perhaps under pressure from their families say that's it. i'm done with mining. i'll find another way to make money.

>> i'm not an expert in mining. i would imagine a good number of them will probably go back down in the mines. it's what they do. it is their life. it is what they do what they know. >> and what about for the rescuers as we were talking about earlier when we talked to two gentlemen who were at the quecreek rescues. they were up against it when it came to hypothermia because of the water down there. unfortunately there was a suicide of one of the rescuers that many felt was related to it. what concerns do these rescuers who have given so much of themselves almost in some cases put their lives on hold to help rescue these men. what happens to them after this? >> well, i mean, they are usually trained and it's a very stressful job but they are usually accustomed to these

kinds of things. i think that it is often easy to overlook the stress on ther rescuers and people in those roles have a breaking point as well. there's a stress to consider. for the most part they handle it enormously well but there's a stress to consider. >> we are looking out at this makeshift camp, camp hope, that families and rescuers were living in throughout this ordeal. they even actually had some of the children going to school at that camp in an effort to be closer to their loved ones. for so many who have watched us -- we're going to listen to it a bit of this in a second. it seems as though their lives were on hold as well as they waited for this to happen. everyone has to recede back into their every day lives. >> the stress on family is something to think about.

i think we can say the same thing about the families. they've been remarkably resilient and able to really hang in there but they've been through a lot too. >> we're just getting some guidance in our ears right now. this is the minister of health giving an update but we don't have english translation. >> yes. we don't have a simultaneous translation. we'll work to reestablish that. giving an update on the miner and state of the rescue and perhaps the most colorful of the rescued miners grabbing headlines in chile today. you should have seen the scene when he came up. one dubbed him super mario. he had brought up a little yellow bag and handed souvenir rocks from down in the mine to government officials and rescue workers.

>> we laugh but they will probably be worth something some day. >> maybe not moon rocks but an interesting souvenir. you can imagine the presence of mind he had and the state of his mind to do something like that. incredible. you would think being underground after that long, all you would want to do is get out. >> at one point he asked his wife how's the dog after those 69 days that's what he asked her. this is a paper capturing him on the front page. waving and hugging rescuers. leading them in a patriotic cheer. he was rallying the ground. served as the spokesman and video narrator for the videos they made while they were trapped. >> as you can see by the morning papers today that we have with us, "usa today," "the new york times," this is the big headline. these were published as they were waiting for the rescue for

begin. >> this is a miracle that will continue for the next day. they bring up -- preparing to bring up number nine and it's taken them seven hours to do that. given that timing it will probably be the rest of today and probably into the wee hours of tomorrow morning before all 33 miners plus the four rescue workers who went down to help them all make it back out of the mind. special coverage on "american morning" will continue as we watch the rescue of these chilean miners trapped underground for 2 1/2 months now. 19 minutes after the hour. [ ind] ♪ another day ♪ another dollar ♪ daylight comes [ dogs barking ] ♪ i'm on my way ♪ another day ♪ another dollar ♪ working my whole life away ♪ another day

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welcome back to the most news in the morning. we're continuing our breaking news coverage of the mine rescue in chile. let's show you live pictures at 22 minutes past the hour from the rescue site. an update from the health minister talking about what the condition has been of the miners brought up to the surface. we are hearing so far that everything seems to be going well and they talked about a lack of sleep obviously over the past few days. >> let's take a moment hear and listen to what he's saying about the rescue operation so far. >> the fenix is behaving extremely well. the transfer time is shorter than what we thought the capsule is not experiencing any damages.

the communication system is working extremely well. the video images that we are getting from the gallery are in very high definition and they show us that the preparation for bringing every miner up is going very well. the monitoring of vital signs is going very well also and right now we expect less problems than we thought we would be facing. jose suffers from diabetes. he had given us additional work the last few days but fortunately his blood pressure was just a little high and sugar in the blood and this was normal

so we really don't have a problem with the miner as a patient. as you said the group of the more frail miners is coming up. what special measures are you taking in the case of these miners? the next patient has some health conditions and he represents a problem. probably the most serious challenge that we will face during this rescue. we are using special equipment, a mask, that will cover his entire face and he's getting a higher dose of oxygen from the very first moment when the nurse from the chilean army went down there, he started working with him making him cough, explaining

to him over and over again and teaching him how to use the mask. we'll just have to wait and see what the result of these efforts will be. we'll see this in a few more minutes. i have confidence that all dangers have been foreseen and things will go very well, which is in this case is the most difficult. he had to use supplements of oxygen. he's been getting antibiotics due to infections. there's a situation of risk here but within the human by possible bounds we have tried to prevent and foresee any situation that might arise. i am confident that we will meet with success.

>> that's the health minister of chile talking about miner number nine, mario gomez, who is going to be pulled up next. we saw the fenix capsule go back down to pick him up. he says there are health concerns with him more so than any of the other miners because he suffers from a lung condition. they'll put that full coverage facemask on him and give him supplemental oxygen. it really is as we said just a few minutes ago a matter of happenstance he was down in the mine. his wife of 30 years begged him the day before this accident not to go down in the mine. it's children's day the next day. spend it with your children and your grand children and he considered that but he said i don't want to be irresponsible. it's my duty to go down in the mine. so he did. he said he was going to quit just after christmas. so you can imagine what she thought when the mine collapse

happened 17 days between that time and the time they discovered the miners were there. she's about to be reunited with mario after 69 days now. i imagine he's going to get a little bit of a scolding at some point in addition to a welcome home. >> they also sort of called him the de facto spiritual leader. as we just heard from the health minister, he's being treated and they say they're doing everything humanly possible to try to limit the risk because of his lung disease. 63 years old mining since he was 12. he's on antibiotics and as you say the supplemental oxygen as well. this is miner number nine who will make his way up shortly. what we're showing you there is videotape. >> this is videotape of an earlier miner coming up. our gary tuchman has been around

camp hope for the last few days talking to folks and he's monitoring the situation here as rescues happen from a little further distance than we see those cameras. did you ever get a chance to talk to lillian ramirez over the last few days, the wife of mario gomez? >> reporter: no, i did not get a chance to do that, john. it's very interesting. one interesting thing you pointed out is the lung condition. it's sad. makes you wonder why he worked in a mine for so long because that's not a good place for someone with a lung condition. hopefully he'll be okay. he's the oldest miner in the mine at the age of 63. he's old enough to be the grandfather of the youngest miner who three hours ago, jimmy sanchez, 18 years old came out. he said while he was down in the mine that he was so homesick and missed his mother's cooking and was so grateful as the other miners to be out and safely out. the second miner who came out, this was many hours ago because we've been here for a long time.

seven hours and 15 minutes since the first miner came out, the second miner was a gentleman by the name of mario sepulveda. called super mario for those that play video games. he made a name for himself because after he came out and greeted his relatives and got a medical check and went to the reunion room and the cameras have been in there for a few shots but it's supposed to be private moments but he made a decision to talk to the public. what he said was very emotional. take a listen. >> translator: god doesn't carry out tests with anyone, no. i think we have the possibility of being able to face things in life like we have just faced. i have faced many situations but i think this was the hardest but i am so happy that it happened to me because i think it was a

time to make changes. i was with god. and i was with the devil but god one. i held on to god's hand, the best hand and at no point in time -- how do i explain this? at no point in time did i doubt god would get me out of there. >> reporter: that is super mario. eight miners are out. 25 still to go. one on his way up. we still have miners down there who one of them for example is a big elvis presley fan. he brought down elvis music. i presume they did not play "jail house rock" depressed being down there for so long and we have a man whose father was also a miner and trapped for a week in another collapsed mine years ago. lots of different people and they've become comrades in arms.

they'll be friends for life because of this unique experience, the survival experience. >> absolutely. you can imagine after being through what they've been through together they would certainly have a bond, something that many of us can't fathom. it's interesting when we look at the camp, reading some of the firsthand accounts from mario gomez's wife, she said that in the first days and weeks after this, the reason they were all gathered there was because they feared that if they left that rescuers would give up the search. she says that one night it looked like they were packing up and all of the relatives came. she came there with a frying pan and marched up to the gates and hit one of the police with it. i feel terrible about it now but i was overcome with rage. they were afraid that people might perhaps give up on their loved ones. >> reporter: when i heard her say that it resonated with me. i'll tell you why. when i was in haiti the day after the earthquake, we were at

a store, grocery store, and a lot of people were trapped inside the store. this very heroic team was pulling them out and had the most modern equipment and they ascertained that there was nobody left inside. there were 50 family members out there and they begged. do not believe. we're sure our loved ones are in the store. they felt terrible because they didn't want to leave but there were so many other places they had to be and they were sure no one was left in the store. they left. these people did not leave the parking lot. ultimately they convinced the rescuers to come back the next day even though they didn't think anyone was there and they found another person alive in the store. this situation here reminded me of that situation in haiti. >> wow. incredible parallels we see. gary tuchman for us this morning. thank you. crossing the half hour. you're watching a special edition of "american morning" as we watch the continuing rescue of these miners trapped

underground for 69 days. eight of them brought up safely so far. operation number nine happening right now. the drama, sheer emotion of this unprecedented rescue bringing tears to millions of people watching around the world. have a look. >> that was the second miner rescued embracing co-workers and leading them in a chile cheer. just to see not only the jubilation on his face but the energy that that man had coming out of the mine.

cheers erupting and tears flowing on this history making morning. live pictures now. 33 men been underground. eight of them free. first worker was raised to the surface in a capsule fittingly named fenix for rebirth after 11:00 p.m. eastern last night. >> each of those miners will be undergoing physical and psychological health checks at a field hospital. we've seen them emerge even mario who looked in perfect health after being down there for 69 days still had to get on a gurney and taken to the field hospital just for those checks. they need to be sure that everyone is okay. our next guest is an expert on how people cope with traumatic events. he's a professor of clinical psychology at columbia university. he also wrote the book "the other side of sadness." >> dr. george bonanno joins us on the set this morning. george, when you look at these pictures, when you look at

sepulveda, 69 days underground, and enthusiasm of a man who just finished a six-mile run. >> remarkable. no other way to say that, yeah. one of the things we see across these kinds of events that's important to keep in mind is there are always a wide variety of reactions. different reactions for different people. some people will react to these events with remarkable strength. remarkable courage and come out looking unstoppable. most people will, i think, be able to endure the stress pretty well and then unfortunately some people will also suffer perhaps longer lasting consequences. >> what can be done to make sure that everybody has the best possible outcome after enduring this? >> well, a lot of -- it's rare to be able to influence the unfolding of potentially traumatic event. this is really a remarkable situation in that the government

and the rescue teams were able to interact with the trapped miners and do things to make the experience -- to foster their health and their ability to endure the experience. the constant contact with the outside world and the fact that they had jobs for them to do is remarkable. the fact that they were themselves structuring their life down there. all of those things bode well for how will they will endure this event. >> this is a live picture of the capsule underground in the mine where they are prepping it to bring up miner number nine. >> and even this part, the fact that rescue teams are down there with them and the fact that it is on live coverage and live television means something. it means that they know they're not alone in this. >> it is really remarkable when you consider the extent of the coverage that the government of chile has set up here. live cameras on the surface

watching very closely each and every move and this live camera 2,300 feet underground. it's so surreal when you see that capsule appear and then disappear going up that long borehole taking these miners to safety. the president of chile suggested in the last couple of days that these miners, maybe not to a man but certainly some of these miners are going to have reintegrating into society after being underground isolated with such close contact with co-workers for so long. what do you think? >> i don't think anyone can say they will or won't have problems. i think probably most will do okay. this is what we see across all kinds of events. it's tricky with this event because forgive the phrase, there was very little data on how people deal with a situation like this because it is so completely unique. there is expert data from nasa. >> they compare it to time spent in a submarine or close environment and some liken it to

what it might be like to be in a war zone. there isn't -- these mine tragedies rarely have a good outcome. >> we know certain things about those situations which you can't learn from submarines but people go in a submarine voluntarily. they don't get trapped this way. that's the danger and the sort of unanticipated aspect of this and what makes it difficult. i think that most of them will cope pretty well because we see that across a wide range of events. we see some people are remarkable like super mario. this man who is truly remarkable. we see that. a small subset of people who just seem they can do anything. we also to see that some people will suffer casualties and we should anticipate that because there will be some men who have difficulty reintegrating and have difficulty readjusting to life and difficulty getting over anxiety or stress of what they have just been through.

>> to what do you attribute their ability to remain so mentally strong? i know you talked about the fact that they were doing work and had a lot of work to do because there was a lot of rock falling down as this borehole was being dug. there have been teams of ikologyists on the surface that have been working with them and also establishing hierarchy among the miners. is that part of what's helped them to cope so well with this? >> you mean a social hierarchy? that's very important. it does structure the relations and structures their activities and structure keeps us clear. one of the things they've really had to deal with here, it's not so much traumatic event. there was a traumatic part possibly in the beginning but mostly endures and chronic stress and keeping their minds clear. keeping their minds from wandering to when you have very little stimuli and you are in an

inclo enclosed place, your mind can go places. >> they were leaders given tasks and hours to do thing. someone else said they knew what time it was because they had cell phones. i want to show the picture of mario gomez, the next one to be brought up. prepping the capsule right now. oldest of the miners. he's the one who had the most vital health concerns that they were worried about. he's on antibiotics and needing supplement aal oxygen because o his lung condition. his wife said in a letter that's now published as soon as they were able to send letters, he sent up 40 letters full of positive things. he was the spiritual leader and she also said that seeing him on the video link was the hardest thing because of how sick he had looked. he had become thin. long beard. looked exhausted.

in a very sage writing that she realizes she might not get back the same mario. she's okay with that. >> immediately she probably won't get back the same mario. it's hard to say how he will change. he may not necessarily change much over the longer term. but because again this time will pass and he will resume hi normal life. >> speak to this idea of the miners wanting to present themselves in the best possible way. we have seen pictures over the last 2 1/2 months of the miners looking very bedragled. long beards. they asked for supplies toiletry supplies to wash their hair. there's a water fall down there they could bathe in. the men that we're seeing coming up look like they have not even been down in the mine for an eight-hour shift let alone

nearly 70 days. >> good for them. that could have all kinds of explanations. it may be simply another activity. there is some research very interesting that came out after 9/11 and other events the notion of ones self being a survivor or hero is important in how people cope with these events. this sense of they've gone through this ordeal and they are heros in a lot of ways and i think it make perfect sense they would want to present themselves in this manner as they come up. >> what about worrying about the relatives? this is something that's interesting. in this letter we're getting from mario's wife that she sent out for people to be able to see, she said that he also wrote to her in the first few letters, go home. i don't want you out there. i don't want you in the cold. she said i'm not going home until i can take you home with me. i'm here until you leave with me. in one aspect they are worried about their own lives but their

loved ones and children are putting their lives on hold, does that help or add to the anxiety? >> it's probably a mix. i think it's very important to have a sense of -- those statements struck me as he's still playing the role of the husband and father. and that hasn't been taken away from him. the communication i think is just remarkable in that regard that he was able to still be -- still have the relationship he had and still have it even when he was down there and still participate in that relationship, which gives him still something to live for, something to hold onto. something to be while he's down there. not just a guy stuck in the ground. he's a father and husband. >> what we're watching right now is preparations to get mario gomez back up to the surface. they're getting him into that capsule. according to the minister of health for chile, this is going to be the most complicated so far of the rescues because as we have pointed out, mario gomez suffers from a lung disease. they'll have to put a special

full coverage facemask on him because obviously there would be a little bit of dust kicked up by the fenix capsule traveling back through that borehole. they want to make sure he doesn't inhale any of that. they have biometric monitoring and a regimen of antibiotics because his condition is fragile. this guy has given his life to mining. he's been working in the mines for 37 years. he's got lung disease as a result of mining. we see that with coal miners here in america as well. black lung disease. it robs them. their work is killing them. and to some degree that's the case here with mario gomez. the day before the accident, his wife pleaded with him not to go down in the mine and to take the day off because it was children's day. wanted him to spend that time with their daughters and their grandchildren and he said, george, no, i don't want to be irresponsible. i'm a miner. it's my duty to go down into the

mine. what do you make of that mindset from a fellow who is 63 years old and has worked his entire life in the mines. >> it is his identity and who he is. it makes sense that he would say that. the danger once he was trapped is what would be called counterfactual thinking. i don't think he did that. it doesn't sound like he engaged in it. the notion of if then statements we can drive ourselves crazy with those. sounds like he didn't do that. now that it's almost over, he will have one of the best stories one could ever have to go into retirement with. he can tell this story for a long time. that's a real nice thing. >> thankfully he'll be allowed to retire, too. >> we lost the live shot. these will be a tense 15 minutes. this is the first miner coming to the surface who had significant medical problems. and we're seeing now there's the winch up there. the wheel is starting to turn.

we expect probably about 11, 12 minutes until he's brought to the surface they can get an assessment. >> look at this picture. obviously a bit of a delay here because it's being brought up digitally. there is the capsule slowly rising out of there bringing him back to the surface after 69 days. that's just an extraordinary picture to look at. >> it really is. it's also just the calm and the organization around it that's remarkable. i mean, imagine yourself trapped for 69 days and you're calmly methodically watching people around you slowly leave and you're down there. everybody's first instinct would be to bang on it and let me in and instead they are sticking with the plan. people are obviously well aware of and all on board with how this is going. and so now we're seeing maybe in 11 to 15 minutes we'll see mario

gomez come up to the surface and get a better picture of how he looks. we also got word that helicopters just departed the scene taking some of the miners already brought up to the hospital for further testing. >> we want to make sure that we're with you live as mario gomez comes to the surface so we'll take this opportunity for a quick break. we want to hear your reaction to what you've been watching. these emotional rescues. send us an ireport at cnn.com/miners and your video could end up on cnn. special coverage on "american morning" will continue as we watch mario gomez rising to the surface. 47 minutes after the hour. n and reality have merged. because of one word, a new generation-- a fifth generation-- of fighter aircraft has been born. because of one word, america's air dominance for the next forty years

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ten minutes now to the top of the hour. continuing coverage of the dramatic mine rescue in chile. there's a live picture at the scene of the san jose mine. family, friends, the president of chile, all waiting for the men who remain trapped this morning. they've been down there for 69 days. more time than anyone has spent underground. still the rescue was way ahead of schedule. last night around 11:00 p.m. eastern, the first man made the journey to freedom. >> since this happened august 5th, each of us have thought whether they would be able to bore through and reach these men. would the plans in place hold up? it seemed like a long shot being able to get that rescue capsule working and so far we've witnessed what is now going to be very shortly the ninth rescue and everything has gone extremely well. they've had no hiccups so far

according to our reporters who have been there watching this unfold for the past seven weeks. this is where we stand to give you an update. eight miners rescued so far. the ride up the shaft takes about 15 minutes although it appears the last few times have gone quicker than that. there are still 25 miners underground as well as rescue and paramedics waiting to be brought up to the surface. >> karl penhaul is one of more than 1,000 journalists covering this rescue. karl penhaul is an army of one himself. >> sure is. he's in copiapo, chile, this morning with more on the latest. we're watching closely because mario gomez coming up next is the one who seemed to have the most medical problems of the group. we heard that update from the health minister on the special treatment that he's getting as he rises to the surface. >> reporter: what i want to tell you, kiran, mario gomez has a very special place for us.

we've made very good friends over the last seven weeks with his family particularly with his wife. she's emerged here at camp hope and one of the natural leaders. she's a woman who has maintained her composure and stood by her man throughout this. she's endured the heat of the desert during the day and frigid cold nights. simply at night brings out logs, throws them on the campfire and huddles down for another night and now all of that waiting is going to be paying off because mario gomez is coming up. the most veteran miner. we heard the health minister saying this is the most delicate health problem. mario will be fitted with a full face oxygen mask enriched oxygen to help him get through this claustrophic rescue shaft. let me tell you, mario is like a piece of old tough boot leather.

ea he's been at this game since he was 12 years old. he has the respiratory disease and that's one of the dangers of his job. mining here in chile is one of the main income earners for the country but some of those conditions miners have endured have been bad. mario gomez is a testament to that. >> we lost karl for a moment there. i'm sure we'll get him back in a second. >> from time to time you might see it pop up here as we wait for mario gomez to rise to the surface. his wife has been waiting on scene taking pictures with her flip cam so you may see an image of her pop up in the next couple of seconds or so. let's right now go to pennsylvania where we find the director of the pennsylvania bureau of mine safety.

you were both involved in the quecreek mine rescue in 2002. nine miners trapped underground. there's lila with her flip cam standing with mine officials. mine miners trapped underground for a little more than three days. wet and cold and this was the first time that we saw publicly at least one of these rescue capsules being used. joe, when you look at the scene here and you look at what's going on there in copiapo at the san jose mine, how are you struck by the whole operation? >> it brings back a lot of memories very similar to the operation at quecreek. we weren't down as deep but the same process, drill the rescue hole, make sure the hole is safe and then place the rescue capsule and lower it down and get the miner in it and bring the miner back out. although the depth is much greater in chile, the process is very similar. >> the depth much greater as we said some half a mile down that journey. we're watching the wife of one

of the miners about to come up. mario gomez. lili taking pictures and smiling. she's been there every day since august 5th since it happened. doctor, i want to ask you about the condition of mario gomez. we talked about his lung issues. health minister said he's been on antibiotic and he'll be using that full facemask of oxygen on his way up. what are the concerns that they might be faced with rescuers and medics as he comes to the surface? >> well, the disease is a long-term disease that really fixes the pulmonary and they have to make sure that he has the most amount of breathing capacity that he can have. that's why they are putting him on the broncodilateors.

they are trying to reduce the risk of pneumonia which is a complication these individuals have. o my suspicion is he'll be fine coming up and on the surface he'll have some respiratory tests done to make sure that his breathing is all right and if it's not, they'll be able to initiate some therapy very quickly. >> joe, as we've been watching this rescue unfold over the last almost eight hours now, we see them being very meticulous in their operation maintaining that fenix capsule to make sure none of the wheels get stuck. we see them greasing them up every trip. you would think since things have gone so well, there may be a tendency to say things have gone well so far and let's go faster. they don't seem to give into that temptation. why not? >> the officials there are in charge and they are keeping

control of the whole operation. you don't want to get complacent and get ahead of yourself. they've had plenty of time to put a plan into place and the main purpose is to follow that plan. stick to the plan. the only time you want to vary from the plan is if you have to. as we've been watching, they're sticking to their plan and so far they haven't had any problems to have to address a different avenue. >> it's interesting. people are wondering how we are seeing these pictures. the chilean government set up this satellite and signal. they were able to broadcast from above the surface but 2,300 feet below. we're seeing the miners step into that rescue capsule. >> they've removed the block to stop the rise to the surface. they remove the block which means the capsule is very close now to the surface. in just a couple seconds we'll probably see mario gomez emerge.

>> we want to say thank you to both of you for being with us throughout the morning. you've provided a lot of insight for us and lived through a similar situation at the quecreek mine. thank you for joining us this morning. >> you're welcome. >> we'll see you again in just a little while. let's watch the pictures here as mario gomez rises to the surface. his wife lila will jump in there as soon as she can. here we go.

>> i bet it is all she can do to wait patiently there for them to open the capsule and let them out. >> married for 30 years. they have children together. and she has waited there day and

night in the cold saying i'm not going home until i have you with me. when asked what she thinks will happen when they finally see each other, i think we'll hold each other and cry and that moment is not far away as we see them opening up the capsule and giving a thumbs up for mario gomez. >> you're watching special coverage on "american morning" of the mine rescue. here he is. he's out. [ applause ]

>> the concerns about his health, he was the one that they felt was in the most danger physically and we see him sit down there for a moment. we haven't seen the other miners do this. >> i suspect he's saying a prayer. he was the spiritual leader of the group as they dubbed him requesting a crucifix be sent down and statues of saints to make a makeshift shrine when they were down there.

>> together for 30 years, separated for 69 and now back together again. mario gomez and lila ramirez. she begged him not to go down in the mine that day. take the day off, please. i need you at home. he said i have to go down. it's my job. now here he is back up again. >> after 69 days shaking hands and thanking some of the rescuers and she also said that she thinks what they're going to do is get married in a church. she said they just had a civil wedding and she says she'll be inviting a lot of the people in the camp because she says they're part of our lives now. and she also says that god has given us the opportunity to restart life. she called it a miracle. >> she wrote a letter about her ordeal here which has been published. to share a little bit of it with you. the day of the disaster she got a knock on the door. it was the head of operations of the mine. here's what she says. he told me there had been an accident at the mine. insisted it wasn't a big deal. a few rocks blocking the

entrance but his face told a different story. in the first two weeks people told me to prepare myself to bad news. half of the mountain had come down and unlikely that anyone would get out alive. i knew in my heart that mario was alive and i prayed that they would be found. there he is. found. now back home. >> there we see him being put on the gurney. supplemental oxygen being fed to him. he's breathing that in right now. let's check in with gary tuchman who has watched all of this drama unfold live at the mine for us this morning. again, remarkable. this was the miner they were most worried about out of the nine that have emerge sd so far. he looked fantastic, gary. >> reporter: this has been such a day of emotion. it's hard to describe. for 7 1/2 hours we've watched nine miners come out of that capsule and be rescued and met by people who love them and each story is a little bit different.

some people as young as 18. this man as old as 63. could be his grandfather. the emotions are the same. watching them meet with their family members in the reunion center they set up specifically for this occasion and watching them hug each other and kiss each other and these are people who probably didn't think they would ever see each other again two different ways. you have the spouses that thought they perished. you told the story how this wife thought her husband was alive but they were alert to the possibility they did not survive and then you have the men underground who for 17 days nobody knew if they were alive. only the 33 men knew they were alive but above ground nobody knew. you got to wonder here it is in the days to come of some of the men who thought they were forgotten about and would die down there and you see this happy conclusion to the story. right now we have nine who have been rescued. nothing is for sure. you are dealing with a situation

no one has ever survived for this long underground ever in the history of the world. this is an absolute. this isn't just a mine ministry. this is in civilization no one has survived this long. that's why it's a great story in chile where the men are heros but also a great international story all over the world people have be been watching this, a common purpose, wanting these men to survive. so far only happy stories to tell. >> we are just struck by the emotion of it as we're watching it here from so far away and when you see a reunion like the one between mario and lila you can't help but have a tear come to your eye. what's it like being there watching these rescues in person? >> reporter: it's really interesting. they allowed us to come to this perch. we're the closest civilians to the rescue site. nevertheless, you and kiran and our viewers are seeing the

details much better than we are because we don't have monitors here. we weren't allowed to bring monitors to connect to the feed so we don't see the close-up emotional shot that you're seeing. what we're doing when we're not on the air are running to monitors that are a distance here to watch but that being said it's almost like an nfl football game or any other sporting event. you see nfl or ncaa better on your tv set at home with digital television with instant replays and can see the game better but being in the stadium and soaking it in and getting the atmosphere, there's nothing like that. that's an experience you can't experience right now that me and my 150 brothers and sisters from journalism who are here soaking it in. >> you bring up a good point. there have been some e-mails from viewers saying that they were quite shocked at all of the production that they are seeing in regards to this rescue. what was the decision process by the chilean government to allow so many cameras to be there and

inundated with press from around the world but also underground cameras as well. it's quite remarkable. >> reporter: right. what's important to point out is this camera showing me right now is our cnn camera. however, all of the cameras with amazing shots underground which are most incredible live shot i have ever seen and live cameras inside the reunion center and live cameras in the faces of these men as they come out of the cage of the capsule, these are all chilean government cameras. that's important to point out. we're not in control of these cameras. they show what they want. great pictures no question about it but it's a government production. you may say to yourself that's amazing that they are so transparent, the chilean government, the question you do need to ask in all fairness is if we had known or presumed the outcome would be negative, would they have been so transparent and have so many cameras and the answer to that question is no. >> this is something that the chilean government wants to broadcast around the world because as you said this morning

earlier much earlier it's breaking news story and typically when we have breaking news it's a bad situation but in this particular case it's a good situation. gary tuchman watching the scene for us live in chile as we watch pictures unfold here as they prep the capsule, recharging the oxygen supply in the fenix capsule to go down back underground for miner number ten. let's bring in our dr. sanjay gupta live in pasadena this morning. sanjay, we are in part of the rescue now where the miners who the most acute medical problems are being brought up. we saw mario gomez brought up a little while ago suffering from black lung disease. not in very good shape but looking remarkably well considering what he's been through. >> yeah. it is really remarkable. i think everyone here just watching and listening to you guys getting chills watching him come up. i think it's worth noting, i mean, people are seeing these miners coming up looking in very

good condition but just how remarkable that is i know that you were interviewing some of the people affiliated with the quecreek mining disaster after just a few days the type of condition they were in when they were rescued this is obviously been 69 days since these miners were rescued and i think it's a real tribute to how much planning went into what you're seeing right now. and beforehand as well getting these miners adequate food, adequate nutrition, making sure they got their medications. with mario in particular. the real concerns about this lung disease and having a desaturation meaning oxygen levels dropping during the rescue mission itself making sure no contaminants and dust and additional particles come into his lungs causing problems during the rescue mission itself and being able to take care of him while he was down in the mine for so long. again, i think it's easy to forget just how good news this is from a medical perspective. the condition could have been

very, very different and you would be able to just tell on miners faces and their condition when they came up. it's just remarkable from a medical standpoint to see these images. they'll go to the field office and a larger hospital for triage that you have been talking about for several hours now and all of that will obviously be done but it's amazing to see medically speaking. >> obviously there's a fair share of adrenaline that's also driving all of these miners as they come up. this is probably the most exuberant they've been since this happened. in the immediate time afterward, what are the biggest concerns? i know there was talk of infection down there because of the humidity and because of the dampness as well as some of the other concerns. fungal infections that could in some cases according to the doctor we spoke to who was at the quecreek mind could be systemic throughout the body. how do they assess that and

treat it? >> you know, the good news about medical triage is there's a consistent nature to it. all of the miners when they get to this field hospital will have sort of an evaluation that's sort of sorts out the worst things first. looking at the airway, looking at the breathing and circulation and that's going to be the same no matter whether you have a pre-existing illness of some point or you were deemed perfectly healthy. what may seem like relatively minor problems, skin infections as a result of the humid setting they've been in for so long leading to a fungal infection that can get into someone's lungs can be a serious problem so doing advance tests like chest x-rays and taking someone's temperature and some of the miners are probably going to get inoculations protectively. they haven't been exposed to germs and viruses on the surface of the earth for over two months. to suddenly expose them to everything that you and i and people living in chile have been exposed to all at once they want

to make sure that doesn't lead to some catastrophe down the line as well. there's going to be my guess a real order to it. a real sequence to it. i noted that the gentleman with diabetes that came up, jose, they said his blood sugar was high when it was checked. that's not that surprising to me. if they had to balance his blood sugar as he came up versus high versus low, they probably wanted to go on the high side a bit to make sure he didn't have an episode during the rescue itself and feel faint or light-headed and pass out and that would have been a much more difficult outcome as you bring someone out. the planning in this again from a medical and health perspective has been really just on the mark it seems and over the next several days obviously evaluation may find out certain things about their health conditions but i think that the immediate triage has gone perfectly well. >> what about lingering

psychological problems. you have done a lot of stories on post-traumatic stress disorder and things troops suffer from when they come back from overseas. is there potential for something similar here because of the stress they've been living under for the past 2 1/2 months? >> i talked to several people over the last several days and compare and contrast to what's happened to other sorts of incidents and even compared to some of what the troops have gone through. every situation is so different. this is a novel situation. the amount of time and congregation of these men together and intermittent contact with the outside world and now what's known as the h heroic period. there's so much support and so many resources and i know you've had other folks on talking about the fact that in the short-term these miners as close as they

are probably will not want to talk about other miners but after a period of time when the heroic period diminishes and people aren't talking as much about this particular story and finding comfort from other miners will be very important. as far as the incident itself and what caused this mining collapse and whether or not it might lead to some pos post-traumatic stress disorder down the line, it's hard to say. every miner will be different in this particular sense and it's hard to predict. that's a possibility. we know from other mining accidents that miners have gotten back into the mines after that despite their worries and concerns and fears about the accident itself. >> one quick medical question we've asked our viewers some of the things they may be interested in as they all watch this unfold. people are asking how it is they are able to bring them up in daylight. we see them wearing the sunglasses as they come up. concerns for their eyes as they try to adjust from near darkness to bright sunlight.

>> artificial light, significant amounts of artificial problematic as well. think about the eyes and pupils and what they have been doing. intermittent exposure to light in the mine but bright light causes muscles to restrict very fast as they always do any time anyone is exposed to bright light. in this case the muscles have become accustomed to being in the dilated position. when you restrict that quickly, could you cause damage to the retina itself. those sunglasses that you have been seeing are basically to protect against that and then there will be a period of time where they will acclimate someone to brighter light. it's very much in line with everything else that you have seen. let's leave nothing to chance and dot every i and cross every t and leave no stone unturned.

this has been the m.o. for the whole mission. the sunglasses are a reflection of that. >> dr. sanjay gupta, thank you very much. what you are looking at on the screen right now is after the ninth miner to come up, they are re-prepping the fenix capsule to go back down. >> we're going to get a live demonstration of just how small that fenix capsule is and what it is like to be in there. we'll check in with him in just a moment. we'll be right back. ot just a warran.uar platie

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22 minutes after the hour. we continue with special coverage of the rescue of the 33 miners. the fenix capsule has just gone back down into the ground. the line momentarily stopped as it they put this block in place. it's designed to keep the line away from the edge of that type to stop it from chafing. they drop the capsule down 25 feet and then on the way back up we get an indication the capsule is here because they remove that block. so far nine miners up safely going for number ten. alex vega coming up in probably 20 minutes or so. >> alex vega, 31 years old, a mechanic. he's operating heavy machinery down there. he also is a mining veteran from a mining family i guess you could say.

his father also a miner. his wife, jessica, is of course talking about how she's nervous and she has been over the past few months giddy at the chance to get to see her husband after 69ing aonni agonizing days. we'll continue to follow the latest as these pictures are broadcast from chile. let's get a closer look at that rescue cage, that fenix capsule lifting the miners to the surface. we have a mock-up of the pod in the studio in atlanta. we've talked about just how small it is just around two feet in diameter. some of those men had to lose weight to fit in it. what's it like? >> what we really wanted to show our viewers and give them a really good idea of what it's like for the miners to go inside the capsule.

we created a replica. let me get inside to give you an idea of how tight the space is. it's about 21.5 inches from shoulder to shoulder so barely enough for a regular person to fit in. 6'4" in height and it's just wide enough for them to be able to wear a belt that is going to monitor constantly their vital signs. this belt once they get into the capsule is connected to the surface so the rescue team on the surface may be able to check their vital signs, heart rate, blood pressure and the like. also, once they get inside, they wear a communication equipment so they can talk to people on the ground and also there's a video camera attached to the

ceiling of the capsule so all of this makes for a very tight space as you can see. my height about 5'10" and that's pretty much the way this is working for the miners. now, this is just the replica made out of wood and plastic but the actual capsule weighs about 924 pounds. very, very heavy. but then again it's the one instrument that's helping save the lives of all of these miners here. >> that's amazing just to see as you said you are about 5'10". shoulder to shoulder is a tight fit in there. thanks so much. we're going to take a quick break. when we come back as we await the rescue of miner number ten now, alex vega, we're going to be talking to two members of the elite team of americans who helped drill that escape shaft that's now being used to get the miners out. it's 25 minutes past the hour. fiber one chewy bar.

how'd you do that? do what? you made it taste like chocolate. it has 35% of your daily value of fiber. tasty fiber, that's a good one! ok, umm...read her mind. [ male announcer ] fiber one chewy bars. continue our live coverage now of the rescue of the 33 trapped chilean miners. the left side of your screen is the san jose mine and the wheel on top of that structure is turning as it lowers the fenix capsule back into the ground to pick up alex vega. 31 years old. a mechanic. heavy machinery mechanic. comes from a family tradition of mining. his father worked in the mines as well. and we're about five minutes into that capsule going down.

takes about 11 minutes for it to get down and then about 15 minutes underground as they prep the next miner to come up and then another 11-minute trip to the surface. we're looking probably about a half hour away before alex vega emerges to see the sun for the first time in almost 70 days. >> and to see his wife jessica waiting for him as well when he gets up there. this kind of rescue in chile is unprecedented as our gary tuchman has been pointing out to us. never before has anyone survived being stuck in a mine for this long. and it's been a huge success so far thanks in part to the efforts of our next guests. >> joining us now from santiago, chile, two members of the elite team of americans that helped drill the escape shaft to get the miners off. james was overseeing the operation when the drill broke through and jeff hart was actually at the controls the moment that the drill broke through into that chamber. jeff, what was that moment like for you when you knew that you had finally reached them?

>> very, very exciting. and yet a big relief. we had a lot of stress come off of us at that moment because we knew we were there. >> as you guys have been watching this unfold, what are your thoughts on how smoothly things seemed to be running so far? >> well, we did a trial run there right before we took capsule down and it went down smoothly. we knew we had a good hole. we were expecting hopefully to have this capsule run without any major problems. it made us feel good that the hole was in good shape. >> this truly was an international effort to rescue these miners. how did it feel to be a part of this whole thing?

>> it's incredible. actually, it's very surreal. you still walk around every day and wonder why you're involved and is this really true. it's very, very gratifying to be here and it's just been the best experience we've ever had. >> it is just amazing to see the collaborative effort and the planning down to every detail as we've watched these rescues unfold throughout the night and into the morning now. and, jeff, let me ask you about the actual shaft itself. a decision was made to actually reinforce it, right, with steel. it seems to have held up wonderfully. there were concerns they would have to stop and start if they were worried about any of it breaking away. doesn't seem to be the case. >> that was actually a decision that was made by someone higher than us. we just had the rig over the

hole so we were able to put that in. the portion of casing that's in there covered up the worst portion of the hole and it seems to be holding up very well. we're pleased with that. >> james, this was described as being very difficult ground to drill in. how tough was it? what were the logistical obstacles you faced and had to overcome? >> well, that's very hard ground to begin with. very abrasive rock with fractures in between and many sections there where jeff and i would be out there on the rig and jeff is a great operator and great driller and we made it through a couple spots we weren't sure we would make it through. the hammers would hang up a little bit. but jeff kept saying we're going to get down there and break through and get those miners out. during the break right before we broke through we were talking to the miners. we had communication with them.

they were a lot of help. they were guiding us letting us know when we broke through. we didn't want to go farther than we had to with the hammers to get them stuck in the hole which wouldn't help at all. good team work. a lot of people behind this from the tech that worked really hard and a lot of long nights and very little sleep and our adrenaline was going at 150% so you lose track of time when you are trying to save lives. >> you can certainly understand that sentiment. here are the fruits of your labor. you see this camera underground and you see that -- right now we see the top of the shaft that you guys drilled but it's been working exactly as it was designed to do. we're now awaiting the rescue of alex vega. he would be miner number ten. are there lessons learned?

we've said all morning this has never happened before. no one has been under ground for that long. are there any lessons to be used in future rescues. disasters that might have proven deadly in the past that perhaps are survivable because of what you guys were able to accomplish? >> you know, it's a very difficult thing to do for sure whether there is lessons learned or not, i don't know. i'm certainly hoping that we never have to do this again. it was -- it's a stroke of luck that we got everything to line up and get this hole where it needed to be so these guys can get out and i certainly hope that we never have to do it again. >> jeff, we know the level of personal commitment that you and james put into making sure that this got done when the president of chile said it's not going fast enough, bring in the a-team and you guys did an amazing job. thanks so much for joining us

this morning. congratulations. >> thank you. >> appreciate it. >> karl penhaul is just outside of the mine. one of more than 1,000 journalists from around the world covering this unprecedented rescue. he's been in place there for more than six weeks now. karl joins us from the mine site with more information about miner number ten, alex vega, and what it will mean for him to be back on the surface. good morning, karl. >> reporter: good morning, john. yes, richard alex vega, he's in his early 30s. 31 i believe. he was a mechanic driving heavy machinery down in the san jose golden copper mine and i spent many hours with his father jose vega. jose vega is 79 years old. he's been a miner all his life. really his son, richard alex, was taking up that mining tradition from his father. his father is a small, wiry man and in fact over the last few

days with all this stress and anxiety, he's had a recurrence of an intestinal problem he's had for many years and has been hospitalized. once again i saw jose vega back at the mine saying he was ready to welcome his son home but the story there, richard alex, he knew that mine was going to collapse several days before. in fact, several months before he said to his father, jose, he said, dad, i can hear the ground creeking. it's creeking and groaning at different times of day. his father, jose, being a veteran miner says you have to get out of that mine an find a job at a another mine because that mine is going to collapse. richard alex said, dad, i'm close to paying off my house. i have to look after my family. he's married to a young woman, jessica, who stood by him all this time and alex said to his dad, i have to do right by my

family and pay off that house so he went back into that mine and we know the consequences august 5th that mine collapsed but the story doesn't stop there. because jose vega is 79 years old who has been a wildcat miner all his life digging holes in the ground and going in himself. he and five other family members including one of his other sons said we're going to take this on our shoulders. i am not going let my son die underground. jose vega said i'm not a man to sit there and cry. he got his pick and shovel and hard hat and he and four family members went up to that mine and they got inside that mine and went right down to where the cave in had occurred and jose vega said i stood back there and there was a shower of rocks. one of the most frightening things i had seen in my life. rocks were falling. i took a sidestep and hid while the rocks fell. a 79-year-old man so desperate

he was determined to go in after his own son. he couldn't make it down. it would have been suicide to get down there. he had to come out. he resigned himself. all throughout this rescue attempt, jose vega has been looking for the back door into that mine even at one stage was contemplating the possibility of dynamiting his way through into the tunnel where his son and the other 32 were. that didn't happen either. today richard alex vega is coming home. he's just a few moments now from getting into the fenix 2 capsule. it will be an emotional reunion with his young wife, jessica, but with his 79-year-old veteran wildcat miner dad who was prepared to risk his own life to save his son, john. >> the love of a parent. the lengths that you will go. that's pretty amazing to hear, karl. thanks so much for the update. the live pictures showing the

capsule being prepped to bring alex vega to the surface. when they're ready and he enters the capsule, it will be another 11 to 15 minutes until we see him get to the top. >> you can imagine what's going through his mind, too. and it's interesting that his father had a premonition about a problem here. we ran into the same sentiment in the upper big branch disaster in west virginia earlier this year where some of the miners told family members i don't think things are quite right with that mine. i am a little worried about it. >> they are trying to find the cause of the collapse of this one as well. some of the structure engineers and experts believe it may have been seismic activity that caused it to happen. obviously that's going to be the subject of major investigation right now the focus is bringing all of these 33 men plus the rescuers out alive. we're going to take a quick break. when we come back, dr. george bonanno joining us on the physical and psychological issues the miners will face now

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at 42 minutes after the hour, we continue to follow the breaking news coming to us from copiapo, chile. there is the scene of the san jose mine and what you're looking at now is the wheel slowly turns to the right is number ten alex vega coming back up to the surface after being underground for 69 days. we've been watching the extraordinary pictures from both

above ground and under ground as chilean officials effort this rescue of these 33 men who as you can imagine have been living just under extraordinary circumstances for nearly 2 1/2 months now. >> just has been amazing to watch this unfold throughout the night and into the early hours of the morning now. it's 7:43 eastern time and we're ready to witness the tenth miner being brought to the surface. still a long way to go but in fact now five of the miners have been moved off the site and taken to a local hospital by helicopter. two of them are being treated right now and cnn's patrick ottman is in the middle of it all at the copenhagiapo regiona hospital. we saw them almost leap out of there when they got the okay to get out of the capsule. how about now? how is everyone doing? >> reporter: they certainly seem very healthy last night and early this morning but doctors have said all along they're not

taking any chances and behind me here this is going to be the miners' next stop at least for the next two days staying on the second and fourth floor of this hospital. there's an intensive care unit. they will get a full checkup. it's really incredible. this hospital was put on alert august 5th when the mine collapse happened told to be ready for injured miners, perhaps miners dealing with critical injuries. that never happened. the last two months to prepare for upgrade this hospital and really plan on this being the ground zero center for triage of these men. they have psychologists here. they have any number of heart machines. they also want to keep these men in seclusion because for the last two months they haven't had any exposure to the outside world. no exposure to germs and common cold and common flu and doctors are concerned about the miners going forward. they know they have stayed fairly healthy in the mine

working the mine and exercising the mine and some had to lose weight to get out of the mine. interestingly as well they get a full psychological evaluation here. talked to one of the medical teams last week and one of the horrors of post-traumatic stress is you continue reliving the event you experienced. for the five men in this hospital right now, they may be free from the mine but it may be some time before they are free of the mine. >> patrick, just want to explain to folks at home what we're seeing on the screen as you're on the left side of the screen. on the right side of the screen is jessica vega, the young wife of alex vega, miner number ten on his way back up. extraordinary scene to watch mine officials march these family members forward to have their reunion with the miners as they come up and just some incredibly emotional moments as that reunion takes place, hugs, kisses, tears, really extraordinary to watch.

you mentioned just a second ago, patrick, some of the miners may have to stay in the hospital for a little while as they are assessed, but the condition that we have seen most of these men in as they come to the surface, might a medical check be a matter of formality for them? >> reporter: i think that's absolutely correct. these men have been in touch with doctors every day. they had a trainer working with them. they were doing very intensive work in the mines. remember they had to clear tons of rock. some of them in their off time were jogging in the mine to stay fit but also to stay fit mentally and give themselves something to do. doctors have been monitoring them and talking to them and they had equipment down there in the last week or two measured their biometrics and they know as much about these men as doctors know about their patients. they haven't been able to touch them and take certain tests but now they'll do that. doctors out of an abundance of

caution want to have a thorough checkup for these men and to give them stability as you noted how thousands of members of the media here angling for the first interview with the miners and this will give the families a place to come and see them and give the men a chance to reconnect. they'll be brought here and be here for several days before being released into this community. the community of copiapo where so many of the miners live. >> we're again awaiting the return to the surface of alex vega. we saw his wife waiting by patiently, anxiously to get a chance to see her husband. we'll take a quick break so we can come back and make sure that we see it live. 47 minutes past the hour. ♪

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>> the left side of the screen is alex's brother-in-law and other family members hugging each other, embracing watching this on a television monitor. their loved one come to the surface. >> there he is giving the thumb's up. looking great. in good health. they're wearing the glasses. here's his wife jessica. let's watch this reyupgs.

>> you can tell all of them wearing the shirts with the chilean flag and national pride and hear them chanting chile, chile. there he is giving hugs to other rescuers. he looks great. >> karl penhaul is with some of the other family members. we saw them in the picture. his brother-in-law wearing a jester's hat there. what are the emotions there, karl? describe them for us.

well, doesn't sound like we have established contact with karl. karl, can you hear us? >> karl was telling us a heartfelt story about the father of alex, jose vega. a lifelong miner, as well, who at the age of 79 years old learning about this collapse wanted to physically do something. actually went to and went into that mine entrance which he found covered with falling rocks. willing to risk his life not being able to bare the thought of his son trapped. karl was telling us he had to be hospitalized but i'm sure that that reunion will be an emotional one for father and son. >> one point, maybe they'll be reunited in the hospital together because each of the miners is being taken to the copiapo regional medical center for a quick check-up. karl was telling us that his

father jose wanted to take dynamite and try to blow the way in. of course, that would have been impossible. so, what we're seeing now is the capsule at the top of the pipe there, the top of the bore hole. they're just prepping it for return, recharging the oxygen canister. god forbid something could happen and interrupt a flawless rescue. a third of the way now with miner 11 jorge gallegui loos next to come up. >> our special coverage continues. we are three minutes to the top of the hour. we'll be right back.

good morning. thanks so much for joining us on this "american morning," a special edition for this wednesday, october 13th. i'm bjorn roberts. >> i'm kiran chetry. it's been a morning of following breaking news and of the wonderful, emotional sort which is quite rare in our business. and probably for many of you out there, as well. we are watching from chile right now where the mine rescue well under way. hours under way now and it's been a success so far. they're sending that phoenix capsule back down and prepping

to bring miner in number 11, joe galleguillos back up. where the miners have been for 69 days. moments ago, we watched as alex vega, the tenth miner pulled to freedom. got a nice hug and a kiss from his wife and headed on the gurney to get checked out medically. the journey takes about 20 minutes. still 23 men to go. >> the first of the 33 chilean miners made the 2,000-foot journey about 11:00 p.m. eastern last night. he was one of the men behind the camera under ground. wore sunglasses to protect his eyes of the glare of the bright lights after two months underground. >> mario sepulveda was the

second miner out. morning, a flawless rescue. >> number ten, alex vega a short time ago. karl penhaul, one of more than 1,000 journalists was among the family. he's live on the scene in copiapo this morning and, karl, what an emotional scene as we saw alex vega's family reacting and watching it on television monitors coming up out of the ground. pretty incredible. >> reporter: alex vega's wife and father and mother up at the mine head but here his sister-in-law and alex vega's brother. i want to ask you -- [ speaking foreign lack wage ] i'm just telling jonathan, alex vegas's brother i knew his father, jose, a great man. [ speaking foreign language ]

i said, did you ever lose hope to see your brother alive again? he said, no. he says we are a mining family. we have got mining in our veins and miners will survive. come what may. [ speaking foreign language ] jonathan, as well, together with his father, jose vega, is 79 years old. he's been a wildcat miner all his life and jonathan and his father jose after the collapse on the day of the collapse both of them together with three friends went inside that mine and they said, we are not going to let richard alex die inside that mine. we are going to go inside and we are going to pull our brother out. and they went right down several hundred meters into that mine

shaft. they got to a point where rocks were falling down. it was a shower of rocks. jonathan and jose, his 79-year-old father, could go no further. they had to go back. but no point did they give up hope. in fact, one point jose was trying to hatch some kind of a plan to go in through a sister mine and dynamite the way down to where richard alex was. that didn't happen. but now, richard alex is back to the surface. [ speaking foreign language ] i asked jonathan what were your feelings as you saw your brother rise up through that phoenix 2 capsule. he said, i haven't got the words

to tell you. he said, but i was calm. he said, because i'm a miner. he's a miner like his brother. and he said, i could see that this was a job well done. i could see that my brother was going to come out. this job was an excellent job. well, there you have it. jonathan, like his brother, a miner. like their father 79-year-old jose vega, a miner, too. it was the love of a brother and of a father that drove jonathan and his father into the mine on the day of the collapse saying we won't wait for a rescue work. we're miners. we will survive. they braved rock falls and were prepared to risk their own life to save richard alex. weller it's got a happy ending. richard alex is now back to the surface and reunited with his family, john. >> you can imagine the sense of relief, too. even though the rescue effort is meticulously planned, there's a chance something could go wrong and extraordinary coverage of

carl penhaul this morning. thanks so much. >> a quick question, karl. as we are watching this unfold, do you see -- how's this town, how's the community ever going to go back to the way it was? or will it not be able to? >> reporter: it will not. having talked to a lot of families over the last seven weeks, i say how will you feel when this is over and you no longer have to live in the desert an engo back to homes and normal lives? they said to me, after this it is difficult to talk about normal lives. what we can talk is the before and the after. this accident has split everybody's lives into, of course, it's split the miners' lives in two and split the families' lives in two, as well. they will be our lives before the accident and our lives after the accident. and you can see that these miners, a lot of them tough, working class men.

maybe not prone to sitting down or having too much time to sit down and think life through but they have had that chance now and you can see this through the marriage proposals that have come up. some of the expressions of love that have come up. even one of the miners has turned his hand to poetry since he's been down there. really had not much of an academic background at all so the miners have found things inside of themselves that they never believed was there. yes, they found resistance. they found a will to survive that they knew did exist and i believe they found a new love for their families, a new value on life. and certainly the miners' families up here have done the same and they say that 33 families, many of them never knew one another before and now the 33 families have become one family and i think, you know, amid all the bad, an accident waiting to happen, a tragedy that should not have happened, but in all the bad, good things have come out, too.

above all, 33 families that have shown us some real human values, to stand by the people that they love and to never give up. >> all right. karl penhaul there. obviously, taking its toll on karl, as well. been up around the clock in the dry climate. your coverage, your perspective is nothing short of extraordinary. we thank you. >> thanks, karl after ten weeks under ground. there's concerns of the toll of the ordeal on the healthiest of the miners. five that have been rescued so far have been transported to a local hospital. they had to do that by helicopter. and more are going to be making their way there, as well. dr. sanjay gupta joins us from pasadena, california, with more on the medical perspective. seeing the outpouring of love, the joyous reunions but in the

practical concerns, sanjay, their health. what are they going to be looking for as they examine these men? >> well, you know, it's worth stating again just how remarkable it is that these miners are coming up looking so good. after so much time. i think that we are getting used to seeing the images of them coming up smiling and looking seemingly healthy but from a medical standpoint, it is worth pointing out again that is a remarkable thing achieved here. you know, i know you were talking to some folks involved with quecreek creek mining disaster and how much of a toll it took on their miners. getting adequate food and nutrition, the medicines they needed if they needed medicines. all of that, in just the preparation for these moments now has just really been truly remarkable. again, worth stating, again, as people look at the images, at least in the initial period,

there is a consistent concrete medical triage system. whether you're healthy before all this, whether you have had a preexisting illness, there is a pattern to how health care progressals will sort of address the miners now looking at the airway, their breathing, their circulation. you see them up walking around an then going back on to the gurney and getting that evaluation and all sorts of what may seem like relatively minor ail n'tmentes that could be bigger problems down the road unless addressed early. a quick example, being underground for so long, these miners haven't been exposed to the same germs and viruses that we have been and the people of chile. to suddenly bombard them with the potential infections could be problematic. providing inoculations, vaccinations may be something to do. iv fluids. make sure that these miners had enough fluid in their bodies so that they didn't become faint, light headed, pass out during

the rescue mission itself and didn't want too much fluid because that could make it difficult for them to breathe. again, you see sort of the outcome which is a terrific outcome. but from a medical standpoint, the planning for this sort of thing, making sure there's no problem in the rescue itself is phenomenal. we're having conversations with the folks down there and now we we get to see the outcome which is great for the miners. >> just to let folks at home know what we're seeing, going back to that, the wheel turning there as the phoenix capsule lowered back down to the mine and in a couple of minutes we should probably see that entering the chamber so miner number 11 gets on board and mark the one third of the way through point of this dramatic rescue. you talked about breathing problems here. as a result of having iv fluids infused perhaps too quickly. speak to mario gomez who was

second to last miner brought up and suffers from black lung disease. what are the concerns about his health on the way up and what do you think the next few hours will hold for him? >> yeah. you know, it's interesting because so many miners do have some form of sill coe sis or black lung disease. it's a silica that gets into the lung. in conjunction with carbon and actually known as black lung disease, as you know. and as a result, you know, just simply getting enough air in is hard and someone -- their oxygen levels at any given time, yours maybe 99%, 100% right now. his would be probably lower. his reserve is what's in question more than anything else. a couple of things. when you saw the supplemental oxygen given to all of the miners coming up, in his case he wore a more complete face mask.

the particles could push him over the edge. that can be problematic. all of the miners getting when's known as the bio metrics tested as they're coming up so they keep a close eye on all of that. if there's a theme to the medical part of the rescue, they want the leave no stone unturned here and taking every precaution possible. >> sanjay, a couple of other quick questions. during some of the reading we were talking about the things sending down and as we have said meticulous planning, medications and also cigarettes afarntly. first nicotine patches but for the miners that smoked, 69 days i they want their cigarettes. how's that all playing into this, as well, with respiratory concerns with the air and the humidity? >> i'm sure there's some significant discussions about that among the medical personnel, balancing that with the needs and wants of the miners. obviously, the biggest concern is the confined space of this

particular area where they were and the impact of all of that extra second-hand smoke and we talked to some folks down there and said there seemed to be enough venting and decided it was okay to have a certain number of cigarettes per day and a worthwhile question especially for people with underlying lung problems like mario as we were discussing. you know, and i think that was probably a risk and sort of reward sort of discussion that they had. you know, and i don't know how various people came down on that particular discussion but in the end, you know, if you sort of balance out what the genting of the secondhand smoke was with the benefit of the miners, that's the decision they made. >> smoking is the national sport in many parts of central america. dr. gupta for us in pasadena, thanks so much. as we take a look now, the phoenix 2 capsule arrived at the chamber.

2,300 feet underground. miner number 11 jorge will be getting in this a moment. we'll talk with dr. j.d. polk of nasa. he was the chief medical consultant on all of this. we'll speak to him about the many issues that he helped the chile an miners address. ♪ when it's planes in the sky ♪ ♪ for a chain of supply, that's logistics ♪ ♪ when the parts for the line ♪ ♪ come precisely on time ♪ that's logistics ♪ ♪ a continuous link, that is always in sync ♪ ♪ that's logistics ♪ ♪ there will be no more stress ♪ ♪ cause you've called ups, that's logistics ♪

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we continue our breaking

news coverage this morning in the san jose mine. nasa officials have been advising the government since the accident occurred. they see the ordeal is just beginning. joining us live from houston this morning to talk to j.d. polk, the chief of space medicine for nasa, part of a team that visited the mine last month and i guess you could call him the chief international consultant for the mine rescue. doctor, great to see you this morning. give us -- >> great to be here. >> what the overall concerns were for the miners as they endured the last 69 days. >> well, unlike astronauts who get to prepare for their long duration missions and confined space, who also have standards and medical checks before their odyssey, these miners were very unprepared for that. they had not planned on being trapped and that was probably the biggest difference. so these folks brought a lot of

chronic medical problems with them into the mine and taking care of those things was one of the major feats that the chilean health authorities had to encounter and deal with. >> speaking a lot of outside help, international help, as well, to make it happen. we just want to let the viewers know what is happening right now. the capsule, the live pictures from the inside of the mine. we just saw the phoenix capsule carrying miner number 11, george galleguillos, 56 years old up through the 2,300-foot ride to the surface. doctor, i want to ask you about him. he's 56, has hypertension, high blood pressure and concerns raised because a video he said he was not feeling well. so, what are the concerns when you're dealing with high blood pressure in that enclosed capsule as he makes his way up for the 11 to 15-minute journey? >> well, that was one of the

principle reasons why the health authorities decided to send medics into the mine ahead of time was to make sure that they could optimize the health of folks that had different medical risks such as hypertension before the ascent. so for this individual, probably less of a fluid load as dr. gupta mentioned before. to make sure that his blood pressure stays up. he may need less than the other miners and make sure the blood pressure is under control. hypertension is one of the main cardiac risks. they want to make sure that the cardiac status is good, not having any chest pain and getting enough oxygen. he made need more supplemental oxygen and taking care of those things and taking great care to make sure they cover every detail medically. >> doctor, it's really terrific to have you on because there's so many issues about keeping the miners' spirits and physical stamina up, as well, for as long

as they were down in the ground. that that prepares astronauts for long-term confined missions. what did you or what tips did you give the chilean government in keeping their physical health up and their mental spirits? >> well, there are a myriad of different recommendations that started in each phase of the operation. and that was one of our biggest recommendations was to split this operation because of its length into separate phases because each one has its own challenges from an engineering standpoint. and from a psychological standpoint, as well. so splitting it up from the incident to what we call a survival phase trying to get their nutrition back up and not having what we call a refeeding syndrome or a problem after they try to get back to normal nutrition. all the way to the rescue phase and then not to forget the

reintegration into society. >> big concerns. one of the things you recommended was the alternating of night and light, light and dark periods in the mine to keep the internal clocks in sync and questions of how their eyes would adjust. they're seen coming out of the mine wearing sunglasses. how did you figure that out and how did you work within the confines of the mine to make that happen? >> well, we had obviously looked at many different contingencies in space flight. for example, the hubble mission, we worked on multiple contingencies in case that mission had been stranded in space and needed to wait for the rescue space shuttle to occur. so many of the things that the miners were going through and many of the questions that the chilean health authorities were looking at, we had answered or simulated at nasa for different reasons so bringing the lessons learned down to chile was even

surprising for us how many things translated from space flight down to ground. >> give us an idea of what did translate from space flight to being trapped in a mine' small things. refeeding the miners was probably one of the bigger things. refeeding someone that was starving, you can't just send down carbohydrate. the insulin is not regulated in the body. you don't want to refeed them too quickly or too much carbohydrate. you can lower a phosphate and cause some profound problems. that's something that nasa thought and worked through if we had to refeed astronauts due to orbit and the fluid load protocol they had prior to coming up in the ascent module to make sure that the blood pressure stays up when they're standing essentially at attention in the capsule. that came directly from the shuttle program and the soy use program.

fluid loading protocol for the astronauts to make sure the blood pressure is up entering the gravity. >> amazing considerations to take place, as well. some of the other things that they're curious about, what people want to know down there is the importance and the psychologists talked about the importance of a structure. almost a social structure, a leader, tasks. how does all of that -- so that, you know, things don't just disintegrate down there. how does that all happen? >> well, as with many things, if you have meaningful work and a structure, it keeps the cohesion of the group. everyone works toward a common goal and there's less dysfunction with the group at that time. we have learned the lessons through the northwest passage all the way through space exploration that keeping folks on task and keeping them with what we call fruitful work is very useful. not only for the body but also

for the mind. >> because i guess, you know, when you look at comparisons to the space program, this is elements of a tour of duty on the international space station and dealing with long-term isolation and same time parallels to apollo 13 where you're in a confined space, you are in difficult circumstances, and you don't know if you're going to make it back. >> absolutely. and one of the disadvantages that the chileans had was unlike space missions to plan out just about every minute of every day and know when the landing will occur, and have preparation and simulation for all the thing that is are going to occur in a mission, they did not have that. and in fact, after about this first 17 days, they were on an unscripted odyssey at that point. no one had been down that deep that far for that long and so they were literally writing the book after that. >> wow. >> well doctor, fascinating

talking to you this morning because, you know, over the last six and a half weeks we are hearing so much about this and great to talk to the guy that helped design some of the programs. appreciate it. >> thanks. >> thanks so much. appreciate your time. >> must be amazing for him to see it happens so successfully from what we have seen so far. a third of the way through and gone nearly flawlessly. >> if any organization knows about surviving in confined spaces in adverse circumstances is nasa. our continuing coverage of the miners' rescue. we'll be back right after this message. ♪ every day you check the weather, check the time ♪ ♪ check the news online ♪heck the wife, eck the kids ♪ ♪ check your email messages ♪ check the money in the bank ♪ check the gas in the tank ♪ check the flava from your shirt ♪ ♪ make sure your pits don't stank ♪ ♪ check the new hairdo, check the mic one two ♪

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dig that tears at the scene of the rescue site to be able to be there and shake hands and cheer along with the rest of the family and rescuers that are there. >> bo livian president alongside the chilean president. a miner brought up earlier was bolivian. that was carlos mamoni. only non-chilean and told the family, i'm not going back in the mine. >> exactly. >> a range of emotions at the sipsychologist told us this. we're awaiting jorge galleguillos on the way up right now. could be a matter of minutes before we see him come up to the surface. >> christine romans is minding your business and looking at the companies involved in the rescue. >> we have talked about nasa. you probably knew about u.p.s.

that, you know, 17 or 18 days after the whole disaster -- >> they could ship to the mine? >> they took them -- not the bottom of the mine. they can get it done. 48 hours they said that they -- that after they were contacted by the embassy, the consulate in washington that they were turning around real quickly and getting supplies down there. there's other companies, too. they're quite proud of the affiliation and their engineering prowess to use in calling a humanitarian effort. schramm, zephyr. schramm, four or five of the rigs looking for the miners are schramm. the one on the left is that plan "b" drill rig. that's the drill rig that drilled the main rescue shaft and then the other one there on the right is the one that reached the miners. the first and poking holes trying to find the guys and just

utter elation when a drill did. >> some people written why don't you drill their rescue shafts beforehand. it's zigzagging and don't know where it is. you're right. that first -- after 17 days, a first got a note sent up saying 33 of us here alive. >> just the engineering technology deployed there. another company does the drill bits to find the miners and manufacturers a large with six hammers to take the original bore hole and pop it out, pop is too easy. to grind it out, grind it out slowly over the days. to make it something that can rescue the guys from -- >> here's jorge galleguillos. his brother carlos is there to greet him and say hello. just take a moment to get him out. continue, christine.

>> probably wearing this belt around his chest, something that is from -- made by zephyr and pretty high-tech no long, too. they have a belt around the waist. usually for, for example, elite athletes or first responders in very, very tricky situation. the technology. a techonometer where a doctor can watch what's going on with them. all of them monitored very, very closely and there's a bunch of companies involved in that, as well. >> in this case, probably looking at these vital signs closely because jorge has hypertension. high blood pressure and a concern was how he would do on that ride up. there we see him right now. let's listen in for a second seeing him actually being taken out of the rescue chamber.

[ applause ] [ chanting ]

[ applause ] >> brother to brother embrace there. wow. >> brother is one of 13, family of 13. two children of his own mining for 30 years. family very relieved he is safely out of the mine. miner number 11. >> remarkable story that all 33

miners underground survived and only by happenstance, too. that jorge survived. he and another miner driving a truck deep into the mine. of course, the mines are huge and enormous labyrinth and you can drive vehicles down there. they noticed a whiter butterfly made that way underground and stopped to take a look at it and as they stopped, the rock rin front of them, the rock ceiling collapsed. if they did not stop, they probably would have been caught up in the collapse. >> so they -- >> butterfly flaps the wings in chile and two lives are saved. >> it is true. i was reading that, as well. made me think how amazing this all 33 who were under there survived. >> yeah. >> in some cases, you have some parts of the mine that perhaps were closed off from others. a section where people lucky enough to be. those are the survivors. all 33 with myriad of health conditions for some of them. the ages ranging from 18 and 19

to 63 and everybody made it this far. >> nine and a half hours into the rescue operation, they're now a third of the way through. and our special coverage this morning on cnn continues in just a moment. 36 minutes after the hour. i used to see the puddles, but now i see the splash. ♪ i wanted love, i needed love ♪ ♪ most of all, most of all... ♪

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>> looking for a number of things. you know, you were just talking about companies that have been helping out. us companies, overseas. oakleys. see the telltale glasses to protect their eyes from the sunlight. they have not seen daylight in over two months. the doctors are concerned about the strong desert sun and the oakley sun glass company sent down the glasses. many miners are wearing sunglasses to protect their eyes. getting a full check-out here at the copiapo regional hospital. they have an intensive care unit set up for the men. there's just really no way to describe the hometown pride that copiapo feels for these miners. many of them live in this town. certainly it's a closest town to the mine and last night while we were broadcasting from the town plaza, we got the experience of

watching another miner, another miner that worked at this mine react to the news that the first miner rescued was above ground and kiran, as you will see, it was just an amazing moment to share in. [ speaking foreign language ] >> and kiran, you know, on august 5th when the men left, many from this area where i'm coming to you now, they left as miners going to work. it's a scene you see here every day. when they're returning here this

morning, they're returning as something quite different. they're returning to their hometown as heroes. >> patrick, this day is given to elation, celebration, pride among the mining community but in the days and weeks ahead, tough questions will be asked surrounding the issue of mine safety. some families didn't think it was safe and potentially a collapse and then it happened. so do you expect there's new suspicion of the mining industry there in copiapo? >> well, certainly, there will be mining changes and not in the industry but not just in copiapo but across chile. the president said last night that mine, mining company, san jose mine will not be reopened until they can clean up their safety record. that man celebrating, he's a miner and worked at san jose and miners here said don't come and pack the business.

we need to work. after that joyous moment, i said, the president's talking about shutting down the mine. how do you feel about that? he said i've worked in that mine. it's a dangerous mine. if they can't keep us safe, it needs to be shut down. they call them kamikaze mine mi. if you go down in the mine, you may not come back. >> that's amazing and garnered international attention and renewed focus on mine safety in the country. what it means for the livelihood of people who have been doing this their whole entire life is another big question to be discussed, for sure. patrick oppman for us this morning, thanks. >> that is definitely an issue to be dealt with. the miners trapped underground for 69 days. some feel the experience will bankrupt them. they can't make payments on property they own. a fellow said the house was almost paid off and probably

will be already and others carrying financial burden and then question of the whether or not there's jobs in the weeks and months ahead shutting down that mine. there's a number of jobs that probably will not come back. so economic concerns, ahead, as well. few for the moment, today given to celebration and elation as we see the family members just erupt in jubilation as their loved ones come back home after 69 days underground. continuing coverage of the miners' rescue in chile at the san jose mine coming up after the break. stelara® helps control moderate or severe plaque psoriasis with 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses. in a medical study, 7 out of 10 stelara® patients saw at least 75% clearer skin at 12 weeks. and 6 out of 10 patients had their plaque psoriasis rated as cleared or minimal at 12 weeks. stelara® may lower your ability to fight infections and increase your risk of infections. some serious infections, like tuberculosis,

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live picture this morning on right-hand side of the screen. the president of chile and bolivia visiting with the fourth miner to come up. carlos mamani. >> still wearing the protective sun glasses with the difference of the artificial light and then coming up to sunlight and normal

lighting. tough on the eyes. but meanwhile, 11 miners brought up safely. the drama, the sheer emotion of the rescue bringing tears to millions of people who have watched this around the world. let's take a look. >> yeah! [ speaking foreign language ] [ chanting ] >> there you go. that was the second miner rescued. mario sepulveda. proudly singing the chilean national anthem. he popped out and didn't look like somebody who's been suffering for 69 days who's life

hung in the balance trying to get to them. >> all of them looked in remarkably good shape. a miner suffering from lung disease from the years in the mines looked pretty good. the last miner to come up was the one who probably looked the worst. we saw he had a blood pressure monitor on the wrist. obviously, his physical stature is in somewhat question and we see this capsule going up and down, up and down. moving at a fairly good clip. brought out 11 miners. let's look at the rescue fanlg, the phoenix. our cnn senior latin affairs correspondent rafael romo has a mock-up of it. >> i'm glad you showed pictures of mario sepulveda.

he carried a bag of rocks to give out as souvenirs because i really have no idea how he was able to fit that bag of rocks in the rescue cage. it's very tight. as you can see, from my shoulder to my shoulder is just space of only 21 1/2 inches. the height, the total height is 6'4". so there's not a lot of space to maneuver here and also you have to take into account the fact that you need to wear the miners are wearing a belt that is helping the rescue team on the surface monitor the vital scenes. heart beat, blood pressure and the like so once you add the communications equipment to -- and that belt, there's really not a lot of space to maneuver. very tight space but, again, it was just incredible to see mario come out of the cage with that

bag full of rocks to celebrate with the people in chile. kiran and john? >> yeah. it is amazing to see. just the way that you're showing it right there, i mean, it is -- for just an average-sized guy, it is a tight squeeze. some of them had to lose weight to fit into the capsule. >> it is, kiran. and just to give you an idea, i'm about 5'10". and i have a little space on top of me but really not a whole lot of space on the side and you also have to remember the way they're being pulled up, i'm perfectly straight rye now. but the way they're pulled out is on an angle. not very comfortable and a bumpy ride but then again, this is the instrument that is saving their lives. >> hey, yeah. bumpy ride up 2,300 feet or your life underground. >> think of it as the worst mri experience to go through. >> rafael, thanks so much. >> we are getting ready for miner number 12 to be pulled up

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ask a financial professional about pacific life. the power to help you succeed. eight minutes until the top of the hour now. a long four hours but exhilarating as we're watching the mine rescues of chile. >> flown by as you watch miracle after miracle as the men are pulled up after being underground for 69 days. just really quite spectacular. >> nothing else to describe it except almost perfect the way it's gone. meticulous planning and then to see operation just go as flawlessly as it has, fingers crossed it will continue. the 11th miner pulled up is

jorge galleguillos, 56 years old. there were concerns of high blood pressure and overall health. he had talked about being unwell. >> yeah. he's one of the only miners, only miner seen come up so far with facial hair. the other miners had asked for shampoo, razors, shoe polish to make themselves nice and clean to greet family members and that is, again, testament to their frame of mind and how strong they were through all of this that they obviously are anxious to get out and want their best face forward as it were when they do come out. >> on the flip side, the wives/girlfriends, family members wanted to look good as well. so many heading to copiapo to get their hair done and look great to see their loved one for the first time in two and a half months. >> people around the world are just riveted to what's going on

there in the little town of copiapo. with jorge galleguillos, there's remarkable stories of how they survived. karl penhaul walks us through this. >> reporter: up here, folklore mixes with superstition. and superstition blends with religion. and as the cold night draws in, miners' families huddle in and light a fire and begin to telltales. and the tale they're telling is about the miner and the white butterfly. part of that story is told here. in a letter sent by miner jorge galleguillos from the bowels of the earth. he and franklin were driving a truck inside the mine.

galleguillos' letter reads, i had gone out to the workshop and driving in, a block of rock caved in. just ahead, i saw a white butterfly. his brother also a miner can't explain just how a butterfly flew more than 500 meters deep into the mine. like most miners here, he's a fervent catholic and deeply superstitio superstitious. he believes the butterfly was protecting his elder brother's life. [ speaking foreign language ] >> translator: i don't know what that was. maybe that butterfly was a little angel passing in front of them or a little god saying, hurry up, there's danger down

there. >> reporter: the blocks came down. and the dust flew up. the last thing he saw during that cave-in was the white butterfly. after that, he said i can't see a hand in front of my face. i can't see a hand in front of my face. they were blinded by the dust. but they survived. mining consultant is not given to flights of fancy. he says white butterflies flutter around these purple flowers that blossom in the desert early in the morning. but they rarely fly deep into a mine shaft. he says they slowed down to observe the butterfly and that saved them from driving into rockfalls triggered by the first cave-in. >> translator: people who are

religious would call this a miracle. the butterfly may have flown into the mine on air currents. you can draw your own conclusions but that butterfly saved lives. >> reporter: huddled around the fire on a cold night, the way the families tell the tale, that white butterfly was those miners' tiny guardian angel. karl penhaul, cnn, at the san jose mine in northern chile. >> that is a true life example of the butterfly effect. >> sure is, sure is. that's what their family members believe so it's wonderful. we're going to take a quick break. continuing coverage continues in a minute.

just a couple of minutes before the top of the hour. that rescue capsule making the way back out that chamber deep down underneath the earth bringing miner in number 11 up to the surface. >> i believe miner number 12. >> i'm sorry. miner number 12. making great progress. >> this is the elvis lover. edison we that. he asked for music in the mine. he led the group for sing-a-longs down there and keeping up the spirits of the fellow miners. >> 11 to 12 minutes' time we'll see edison to be met as all the miners have been by a loved one and there will be an emotional ho homecoming for him. that wraps it up for us. thank you for joining us. of course, we are going to continue watching this all day long on cnn because what we're seeing there in chile is