Officials will continue efforts to retrieve Jones' body today. Wright said she just hoped Jones was unconscious for much of the ordeal. "If the brain centers that control your heart and your circulation and your breathing are damaged, then of course you lose your ability to breath and your circulation may fail." "Deep brain swelling can lead to coma," said Cohn. The pooling blood in the brain may also cause someone to go unconscious, or even go into a coma. Wright explained the heart may not be able to get enough blood to the kidneys, causing kidney failure and death. That pooling of blood can cause a variety of problems before a brain hemorrhage. "Therefore you could get brain swelling and brain hemorrhages," said Cohn. In other words, our body is designed to prevent blood from pooling at our feet when we stand up, but it isn't designed to prevent blood from pooling in our head if we are turned upside down. Cohn, a professor of medicine at the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis. "The blood vessels in the legs are endowed with fibers which constrict them when we stand upright, but the brain's arteries do not have that capacity," said Dr. Another Danger to Being Upside Down: Blood But, according to Cannon, near midnight Jones' lost a pulse and the doctor on site pronounced him dead.Īs time went on, doctors say Jones's body must have been fighting to breathe, as well as fighting to pump blood against the forces of gravity. Rescue workers frequently radioed-up Jones's vital signs to a doctor on the surface. Rescuers who were trying to chip away at the rock "had a five inch section they drilled away and it took them an hour and a half."Įventually Jones started slipping in and out of consciousness. "It is very, very hard rock that is difficult to do anything with," said Cannon.
#Nutty putty cave free#
Volunteers from two cave exploration associations and 10 fire departments fought to free Jones but, Cannon said the hard rock of the cave's walls slowed drilling efforts. Neighboring Communities Joined Fight to Rescue Man in Cave Rescue workers were briefly able to lift Jones' high enough to pass him some food and water, but "when they were able to get him raised from where he was stuck, we had a ceiling anchor give way and he fell again," said Cannon. The small space limited the rescue methods, so volunteers resorted to securing anchors in the cave's walls and tried to pull Jones out by ropes. A Valiant Rescue EffortĬannon said rescue workers stayed beside Jones in the 18-inch wide and 10-inch high space throughout the ordeal. But when someone is upside down, the lungs "are working against the weight of your liver, of your intestines and the breathing muscles have a difficult time overcoming that."Įventually, Wright said people in a head-down position will most likely die of suffocation. "The rib cage is built from the top-down so the lungs expand into the body cavity," said Wright. At that position, Wright said it would have been very difficult for Jones to breathe. "It actually was a form of torture and a quick way to kill somebody," said Wright.Ĭannon said Jones' position was nearly "straight up and down" - close to 160 to 170 degree angle. Wright explained hanging upside down for a long period of time could lead to death in a variety of ways and within less than a day - a fact exploited by the ancient Romans who crucified people upside down more often than right side up. Wendy Wright, assistant professor of neurology and neurosurgery at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. "It sounds just absolutely terrifying," said Dr. Doctors say the head-down position Jones endured made the rescue operation a race against the clock.
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