This article describes the Nutty Putty Cave accident in which a 26-year-old caver named John Jones tragically lost his life in 2009. His death is a sobering reminder of how dangerous caving can be and why we should follow safe caving practices at all times when spelunking.
The cave
Nutty Putty Cave (located in Utah, exact Google Maps location here) was first explored in 1960 and it quickly became famous for its narrow and slippery passageways, twists, turns and squeezes. Different parts of the cave are named accordingly – The Birth Canal, The Aorta Crawl, The Scout Eater, The Maze. Nutty Putty Cave is a hydrothermal cave, with a total surveyed length and depth of 1355 and 145 feet, respectively.
John Jones
John had had plenty of caving experience, but not recently – most of his spelunking was done when he was a kid – John’s father frequently took him and his younger brother Josh on caving trips all over Utah.
Josh wasn’t his only brother: John Edwards Jones was born into a big family of five boys and two girls, he also had 16 nieces and nephews. John was a devout Christian, and according to his family statement later, he was known for his “good nature, delightful sense of humor, strong work ethic, a genuine love of people, a masterful ability to relate to children, a love of and unwavering faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and his commitment to his family as an amazing husband, father, son and brother.”
At the time of the accident, John was studying to become a pediatric cardiologist, had recently become a father, and his wife was pregnant with their second child.
The accident
Entering the cave
On November 24, 2009, the brothers John and Josh decided to rekindle their love for caving and picked Nutty Putty Cave as their next conquest. It was 8 p.m. on Wednesday, just a few days before Thanksgiving when they arrived at the cave site. They weren’t alone: 9 more friends and acquaintances had joined them, so by caving standards, it was quite a large group that finally entered the Nutty Putty Cave.
Everything went smooth for an hour or so. The party had explored the largest room in the cave, aptly named the Big Slide. Soon, John, Josh, and two of their friends decided to take up a challenge they had heard about – namely passing through the Birth Canal, a narrow and challenging passageway that eventually opens up into a larger room. John went first: he wriggled forward for some time but did not see any larger area. He continued to inch forward, but the narrow passage did not come to an end; instead, the squeeze made a sharp downward turn. Confidently, John pressed forward, perhaps noticing the tunnel got wider at the bottom, but it was already too late.
It all went wrong 50 feet earlier. It is unclear from the conflicting sources on the internet whether John entered the Birth Canal and accidentally turned and wriggled into the Scout Eater or if he had missed the Birth Canal entirely and crawled into another passageway, just next to the Birth Canal, called Ed’s Push. Now, Ed’s Push does not lead to a larger room. It does not lead anywhere, at least nowhere a 6-foot 200-pound man can fit. Ed’s Push has four uncharted passageways at its end, but they are all too small for a human (if he instead pushed into the Scout Eater, it similarly has a small passageway that doesn’t lead anywhere). In any case, John kept pushing through until he couldn’t continue. To top things off, he had wriggled into a fissure that went nearly straight down, which made him unable to turn back on his own. The narrow crevice he was trapped in measured 10 by 18 inches. This size is comparable to the opening of a front-loading washing machine, except it wasn’t a perfect circle and he was stuck in the tightest part of the opening. Trapped more than 100 feet below the ground, and deep inside the cave, all John could do was wait and pray.
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The long wait
His brother Josh who was following him was the first one to find John. Anxious of how much the rock had swallowed John, Josh tried to pull him out but only managed to inch him up a little. As soon as he let John go, he slid right back into the crevice. John was stuck with one hand pinned underneath him, and the other forced backward. His ankles and feet were free but were of little use as gravity pushed him down. They both said a quick prayer, and Josh hurried back to the ground as fast as he could, slowly wiggling out of the tight passage and rushing to the surface. Once outside, he quickly called for help while their friend stayed with John.
The first person to arrive to help, Susan, was a local rescue volunteer who immediately dropped everything she was doing when she received the message on her rescue pager and rushed to the scene with her Toyota. She arrived sometime around midnight – it was now more than three hours since John had been trapped deep inside the cave. Small, agile, and quick, Susan took no time to reach John.
“Hi, John, my name is Susie. How’s it going?”
“Hi Susie, thanks for coming,” John said, “but I really, really want to get out.”
Within the next few hours, tens and tens of rescuers arrived. The rescue team quickly brainstormed a plan after a plan. They discussed everything – even lubing the walls of the cave – until they decided to use a rescue rope that passes through a series of climbing cams with one end of the rope tied around John’s legs and the other end pulled by the team. At the same time, they also tried drilling away chunks of rock near John, but the hard material and the awkward position made drilling a slow and painful work. In over an hour, they only managed to drill through a couple of inches of rock.
The position of John’s body also complicated things. He was trapped nearly upside down, only his feet were visible to the rescuers, and the ceiling above the feet hanged so low the rescuers couldn’t just pull him out as his feet would get in the way. Time passed as rescuers worked frantically and failed with their first system of climbing cams. They then tried to use a rope-pully system, anchoring the pullies with bolts, drilling the bolts deep in the cave walls.
Everything was made more difficult by how narrow the cave was. Even though there was a large team of rescuers, volunteers, emergency services, and a rescue helicopter outside, only one person could directly access John.
Meanwhile, John was doing worse – he had now been stuck upside down for a long time, having some difficulty breathing, and his heart had to work twice as hard against gravity to push the continuous blood flow out of his brain. He was swinging back and forth between panic and calmness.
At one point, they brought a two-way cable radio into the cave and managed to lower it to him so he could speak with his wife, who was near the cave entrance on the surface. They were both agitated but comforted each other.
John had now been trapped upside down for 19 hours.
Things start to look better
Everything changed when the rescuers finally finished installing their pully system and started pulling John out. They worked in an eight-men tandem, all tugging as one. John was at times in great pain, so they made frequent pauses. But each time they pulled, they managed to pull John up a bit more.
After pulling him upwards the third time, John was finally lifted high enough so that he could make eye contact with the rescuer closest to him. He looked tired, his eyes were red, and his face was dirty, but he seemed fine otherwise.
“How are you?”
“It sucks. I’m upside down. I can’t believe I’m upside down. My legs are killing me.”
The rescuer saw that even though John was complaining, he had a smile on his face.
They had another rest then decided to continue pulling John up. He was almost out.
Disaster strikes
When the rescue team pulled John upward for the fourth time, something happened.
The entire team fell backward as the rope suddenly went loose in their hands. The closest rescuer felt something hard hit his face, and he passed out for a second. When he came to, he saw nothing but dust. Once the dust settled a bit, he realized the stone arch near John’s legs where the rope was tied around had shattered, and the nearest key bolt had broken off. He couldn’t make out in the dust where exactly John was, but soon he realized – John had slid right down the crevice again, this time seemingly even deeper than before.
As the rescuer suffered severe facial injuries from the impact with a metal carabineer and couldn’t continue his rescue efforts, he had to switch places with his dad who was also on the rescue team. When he reached John, he realized that John’s breathing was much more shallow and less frequent, and he was struggling to stay alive. The rescuer called for John but received no response. Desperate, he tried to lower himself into the crevice to put the rope around John’s waist but got stuck himself. After finally wriggling himself free, he drilled a new hole for the pulley and crawled out of the cave, exhausted, to be replaced by yet another rescuer who reached John but couldn’t make contact with him.
Soon after, a medical professional crawled into the cave and reached John. At midnight, November 25, John was pronounced dead. He was 26 years old.
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A total of 137 rescuers worked hard for 27 hours to save John but had to leave the tragic site with empty hands and heavy hearts. One of them told the media this was his toughest rescue in his 29 years of being a search-and-rescue volunteer.
The next day, the authorities determined that it was too difficult and dangerous to get his body out of the cave, so Nutty Putty Cave will forever remain the final resting place for John Edwards Jones.
A week after, public authorities decided to close Nutty Putty Cave to the public permanently. It has been sealed ever since.
John’s family had a plaque put on the entrance of the cave in his memory.
May he forever be held in God’s warm embrace.
A very tight embrace as it may.
Really interesting post!
Omg what a sad story. The map itself was scary enough. I guess you have to love the caving experience. May his family and friends keep him to heart.
Reading this is very sad but at least they stayed with him until the very end and he was able to talk to his wife I hope he was not in very much pain it is real horrible knowing that you are going to die and be left inside this dark hole the rest of your life you never would catch me in any place I guess I am scared to death of tight spots even under a house
This looked crazy the poor family
He was a brave men sad to hear this
Thank you those who tried. What comes across in this story is the effort. It sounds like they were so close to rescuing him. How tragic. My brother occasionally does reckless things like this. People don’t realize the hidden dangers of what they are doing sometimes.
This is why we cant have nice things like caves.
Seriously, though, imagine an adult gets themselves killed doing something dumb so therefore the object that they died on must be removed.
Not to mention, beyond selfishly risking your life when you have a wife and soon to be, two kids.
this can even happen to proffessionals, so pls! of course you can be cautious but you can never eliminate 100 % of risks.
Kind of a cunty comment, no? Show some respect to the dead, dummy.
What is wrong with you people. Some of the comments being made are so cruel and disrespectful!!! Sad to be reminded there are people in the world who are so evil!!
They’re right. I would never, ever, ever say John “deserved to die”, but then again I would not do something like this if you paid me a million dollars (and I could REALLY use the money!). Crawling head first into an opening the size of my washing machine, deep in the earth? Just BEGS for something horrible to happen.
Well one things for sure
He won’t be doing that again
Okay but this wasn’t just any cave. This was sadly a cave that was too easy to get lost in and he got stuck. It’s not like he knew he the passage was too tight until he got there.
They used dynamite to seal off the part of the cave where he was stuck. There’s really no need to shut the whole thing down when hundreds of thousands of people made it in and out of that cave fine. Do we close down every ski resort or hiking trail someone dies on? There should be clear warnings but at the end of the day it should be up to individuals to decide whether they want to go into something formed by nature, NOT the government. What gives them the right?
yeah it’s the nature, so just break through whatever rocks now sealing the entrance. lmao
Not public land, so they can do with it whatever they want.
Cave was privately owned and closed by the owner and words from the parents. However I agree that just that part of the cave should have been closed.
Poor you, Jen Farmer. You can’t have ”nice things” like caves to crawl around in with dead bodies. Poor you! The nicest things are precisely what you have and take for granted…like your life and safety…and the safety of your own loved ones
He thought he was in a different passage, a passage he would have been able to get through. He got turned around somehow. It was an accident. Obviously he was a very smart guy training to be a doctor. Accidents happen. This cave was too dangerous to be left open to the public. That’s like saying we shouldn’t have guardrails on the edges of cliffs and drop offs. We all drive knowing how dangerous that is. But guardrails are up to protect us because as people we care about each other. And before they even build the road they find the safest route to place the road and don’t put roads on extremely dangerous area, or public roads that is. Just like authorities close down one cave that’s too dangerous but leave other caves open. Or close down sections of caves. To the public. They cave can still be accessed by professionals and situations where it needs to be. Like for rescues, of some dumb guy that doesn’t agree with closing off dangerous caves and ignores logic and goes inside because he should be able to see “nice things”. Not caring about putting the people that come to save you in danger too. It’s closed for a reason mate. Not just for the public but also the safety of first responders and rescuers.
Imagine being over 6 ft tall and thinking spelunking is a good idea.
Yep, though the same thing. Spelunking is fir smaller people, especially in that cave.
I didn’t go in that cave and I don’t know who did. There is something to be said about how dangerous things can be. But like my dad always said “focus on the things you can does, not the things you can doesn’t”
Your dad was really bad at English.
I got anxious and freaked out just reading this story. I can not imagine what this guy went through. To think that his body is just there forever – alone. What a morbid thought. I can’t imagine people actually purposely explore tight spaces like that without having a complete panic attack. I’ll stay above ground and be just fine, thank you very much.
Yes. I am so claustrophobic and sweating reading this. Poor man.
same. i had to take breaks and come
back
yesss …. I literally jumped up out of sheer horror, I cant begin to imagine- makes you wonder if people ever stop to think…
‘what if?’
more than anything, my heart goes out to his wife.
That’s my issue with stuff like this. How is your only thought before doing something like this… “Hmm, what is the worst that can happen”, and how is the answer not enough to convince you to NOT??
the cave did him not let go, beyond death! forever stuck..body and soul. Why did the cave win? he tooks his life, aint that enough? he should be rescued, even dead. Cant get over this topic. Watched the video on youtube.
I agree. they should go back in and get the skeleton to put to rest somewhere else, but the soul was let free in that cave and it will most likely be trapped forever in there finding newer places to roam.
and how wud they do that lol,,he did it to himself he sufferes the consequence obviously its sad the way he died but the motives of it is what i have no sympathy for, i mean the man had a newborn child and a wife, who tf does this stuff
Some of you people commenting are effing putrid and I only can hope you dont get what your vile souls deserve. Class it up.
So wishing that people who make harsh (but not disrespectful) remarks do not “get what their vile souls deserve” is any more dignified than those actual comments?
It is very educational to see the dynamics of such discussions regardless of the context. A young man tragically died and thereafter and for all eternity, all criticism regarding his decision making, recklessness, lack of respect for a cave’s traps and disregard for the nutty putty’s incident history, is not to be ever brought up again. It surely is an honorable move to advance your condolence to family and friends but it does not make you a monster if you instead just underscore the lessons that can be learned from his light-headed actions. It won’t hurt his pride. He is dead. But it might stick to some kids’ heads when they go out on similar adventures. People of my generation urgently need to call back their self-granted right to drop judgement on everyone and everything they dont agree with. Its your opinion. No need to go personal on people not taking the same route as you do in the comment section. If you are so righteous, its time to show some respect towards opinions other than your own.
Thanks
I’m adopting ‘Class it up’ as my new fave phrase 😁 *Missy Truth made a valid point (& did state ‘hope you 𝑑𝑜𝑛’𝑡 get..’; no need to react as if they said otherwise. It was also a general comment about trolls, which surely 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠 give it far more dignity than troll comments about a named person)- It’s possible to be critical & express opinion without being caustic, free speech never meant the right to belittle others. While comments may not ‘hurt his pride’ they lower our collective dignity, John also has living friends & family including 2 children who may stumble across posts. Why shouldn’t commenters be held to a basic standard of respect? Pre-digital with far less access to anonymously insult strangers, there was far less need to confront it; just newspapers to write into via human censor. With greater freedom of expression comes self-responsibility; it’s not an ‘entitlement’ to carelessly lob words like grenades from hidden behind a keyboard, & feel outraged if we’re called out on it. Derogatory comments actually work 𝑎𝑔𝑎𝑖𝑛𝑠𝑡 education; giving the idea someone is somehow ‘lesser’ dangerously deludes us to think we are safe as we are unlike them – rather than learning from a person pretty much like us, who happened to make fatal mistakes. It matters not which generation we think we speak for, 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 should have basic decency to each other to think before they post; to remember it’s human beings on the receiving end, not some distant abstract target to throw bile at. Peace out, as I’ve heard people on US TV shows say… ; )
this is one of the only comments i have ever seen on the internet that is both sensible and compassionate, genuinely thank you. also i find it ironic that so many people who “would never do something so stupid” seem to think they know quite a lot about the subject to be so comfortable passing judgment on a man who died tragically
I don’t disagree with anything you said except for defending Miss Truthy for saying she hopes they “don’t” get what they deserve. That was very clearly, very obviously a typo. Pretty sure after calling their souls “vile” she’s not wishing them the best.
I truly love your post, your delicate way of addressing an issue that has created so much tension and toxicity in social platforms. People do lose their humanity just to bite back at what someone says or does. As if on any given day we don’t all make mistakes and poor choices. Perhaps not this one but risk is risk. My point, it takes so little to be careful with our words and yet they go so far. 💛
There are some comments that go beyond an acceptable opinion, some real bastards online, but yes there’s some real lessons to learn from the horrible event also completely agree there.
heard there was a place called eds and bobs push in nutty putty, how ironic..stop pushing it bob with your unlogical responses
I’m so claustrophobic , I have anxiety just reading about his nightmarish ordeal. His poor family i can’t imagine the grief his mother and wife suffered knowing he was hurting and they couldn’t comfort him. Also bless the volunteers who attempted his rescue.
I accept that his legs would hit the roof of the cave when they pulled him out, so they might need to be broken, but I don’t understand it. Maybe someone can explain, please? His legs bent a certain way to get in, why couldn’t they bend that way again to get out? is it because if his legs bent at the knees, the ropes would be pulling his lower legs toward the cave exit, rather than pulling his body up and out? Where did they propose breaking his legs? If there was so little room they had to break his shins, wouldn’t they also have to break his femurs later?
Does it really matter now?
The way I understand it, he rotated 180 degrees when entering this, also while bending his knees. This means his knees would have to bend backwards from where they are to be able to get out. Also, he had to exhale fully to compress his chest enough to go into the hole – when he inhaled, it basically got him stuck this position meaning he couldn’t do a 180 to get back out.
Thanks. I wanted to understand but couldn’t really picture it.
Yes every shin and femur bones in his leg would break and cause further trauma and shock in his already deteriorating state. No good option sadly ..
The ONLY option, else did not work out.
They were concerned about him going into shock. Before the pull system broke, he was being moved the smallest amount at a time as they were worried about hurting him, but the more serious his condition became, they decided to just pull as much as the could. All the blood was rushing to his head so every time he was pulled and hit the walls, the pain would have been agonising for him. So if he broke his legs, the pain would have been unbearable, probably sent him into shock and he most likely would have died from that. Remember he was upside down and face down, so if his feet were hitting the top of the cave as he was being pulled, he wouldn’t be able to bend his legs at all. such a tragic story, i really can’t imagine what he went through. Poor guy!
i mean your right there , i give it to you its sad he was upside down, just imagine the difference of the outcome if he went legs first
Absolutely can’t imagine what this poor guy went thru. Sounds like he was a great person too. Probably the last way I wanna die. I’ll be avoiding caves at all cost now
Mostly irrelevant now, but for accuracy’s sake; “The rigging failure actually dropped John aprox 1 foot; it did not injure him but effectively ended hope of rescue as his conditioning was declining; extracting an injured helper, re-rigging the pulley, & re-assembling the team took over an hour, by which time John was now unable to assist his rescuers with any upward progress – 1 rescuer had earlier exited the cave & reported John was nearly free, 1 hour later the rigging had failed; it was subsequently broadcast that John had been free but the rigging failure dropped him all the way back to his original position; this is untrue”
That’s scary thank you to all that tried to get him out!
this was an absolutely tragic story. And to those negative comments I can only say, that many people like adventure. No one goes mountain climbing or spelunking thinking they will die but people do die as there is always some risk involved. I can think of a lot of activities that carry a risk , racing car drivers, scuba diving etc. I’m sure many are married with kids. Don’t be judgmental just because you wouldn’t do it. You couldn’t drag me into a cave like that, I’m so claustrophobic.
This makes me feel when I read this tragic story as if I were in there too right next to him and the overwhelming impending doom sets in and it is tremendously frightening.
What he endured was unspeakably awful. But they were making progress getting him out. I like to think that when he lost consciousness, he had hope. In some accounts, he lost consciousness when the rigging failed and he fell back downward. That would be some comfort if his last thought was that he was going to make it out.
Why does he have to be labeled as selfish? His father taught him how to explore caves. I think skiing is dangerous and water skiing too. People die doing those activities. Are they selfish too?
More people die in car accidents than extreme sports every day. Are car owners and drivers selfish? They must be. The ones who get in accidents ruin it for the ones who don’t because we pay more in insurance.
You risk your life just by walking outside. Life isn’t promised to anyone. That’s why we purchase life insurance.
Some of you need live! Get off the internet and go have an adventure. Explore some caves!
I would definitely say that entering an upside down hole the size of a washing machine hatch when you’re 6 feet tall (or any size over a cat) is incredibly more dangerous than any car ride, and basically asking for death.
We can criticize the dead. I feel terrible for him and his family, if I had been in the rescue team I would have absolutely helped all that I could, but this is one of those cases that if they had saved him all in one piece, he would have deserved a good few slaps to the face for being such a moron.
I want to do paragliding and swim with wild killer whales, but you can be sure that if I had young children, I definitely wouldn’t be doing at least the latter. If you have family, your life does not only belong to you.
Totally agree with you!!!!
i think what they are calling selfish is the fact that over 10 other lives of volunteers and rescue workers that got hurt bc he chose to do it knowing the risk. its not just a risk for him. you see. now with that being said my heart hurts for this man and his family!!! rest in peace! im sorry this happened. i know he never thought this would happen. To his family wife and daughter I pray for you! im sorry for your lose. he would have been a great person. he was a med student. so he would have been a great member of society! which we could use!
Skiing is dangerous, and water skiing too. I refused to do either, while watching friends get broken legs that took all summer to heal. Those friends are now older, and each and every one of them is messed up. For a nights fun?
Your rational is flawed, because drugs are only risky too but I bet you won’t go do them just because you’ll die some day.
You can live plenty and still not explore a tiny space you don’t belong in. If you must, that is your choice ultimately, but I hope it isn’t, because this right here is a horrific way to go. The “what if” of wrestling a small crocodile. the “what if” of trying to punch a shark instead of getting out of the water. these are the horrible, awful ways to go.
The world isn’t black and white, that’s why judgement is so difficult to come up with. Do you stay or do you go? In this case, risks were taken, risks which are inexcusable. This makes a good lesson for people who might take the same risk without stopping to think and realize, yeah caves do collapse.
Now you can argue that airplanes fall out of the sky and cars wreck all you want, but if you can’t tell the difference in risk and exactly what the substance of this comparison is, you need to rely on other people as your judgement is poor.
I am so heartbroken. So, so sad. What would have happened if they have had broken his legs?So they have could pull him out. The crave did not want him to go, never ever. Why did this thing broke and he slipped deeper? why he exhaled to go deeper, he thought there would be more space? what if not?it is so devestating. In the film 27 hours the guy had a chance to survive, bu this man? no action possible, no back just more diving into his death. Even after death no way to escape, why not? they have to rescue his dead body and soul. Why does they allow the grave swallow him further and further. Even his bones. Pls take him out for Gods sake. There must be a possibility without harming others. Dont leave him there thats not ok. No freedom at all?
,
I agree, take him out of the hole so we can throw him in another hole
mankind dont belong in cave, in water or in air. The earth and soil is his place. He is neither a fish, nor a bat, nor a bird.
I got anxious just looking at it, I can’t imagine how much pain he was in.
This sad story got to me, both mind and heart. Prayers and love for the family and friends. Many thanks to the wonderful people that tried to save this young man. Look, people should understand that if you have a family with young children, you need to approach life a little safer than if you did not have a family with children. Same as any of the many different trills and crazy adventures such as mounting climbing, high speed motor craft type things. But to each their own! I personally think that all the small passages should have been closed off long, long ago. I mean they let kids go in that cave. Caves are fun and all is good until it isn’t. I also think that John was trying to prove a few things like for a story to tell or a competition between his brother and friends. Nevertheless, he made a careless and selfish decision. The additional scary part is that he put other people in danger due to his miscalculation. Yes, I am sure he was wonderful person with love and good faith. That won’t change the true outcome of this story. I feel bad for all involved and only one could imagine how he felt in his time of need. I also can see the rescue could have been done differently, I know no need for a Monday quarterback but why they didn’t use a come along closest to him and an inflatable air item for as he was out two feet as they said. Their system was to complex and took too long. But do that too, but first focus on getting him out of the crevice first and then do part two. I am sure there are many people that think that they still should have removed his body from that Tomb. Look they may open that cave many years from now and it will always have that haunting feeling that he is in there. I mean it’s hard to rap my thoughts around that factor alone. They did promise him that they would get him out. Only time will tell, please be safe and well out there.
I feel so bad for him and his family. Even if they had gotten him free from that miserable predicament, I don’t know if he would have survived. Unlikely if he had been upside down for 22 hours.
Your legs hold like 20% of your blood. Veins have a high compliance. Compliance is a filling term. Veins can expand a lot and be filled with a lot of fluid (arteries instead have high elasticity … and higher resistance). The body has ways to move blood near your feet back up to the heart. Nearby skeletal muscles contract, and this propels blood upwards, against the force of gravity. One way valves keep the blood from flowing back down. This system allows blood to travel up the venous column in the lower extremities.
When inverted, the head and feet swap places. The body has no machinery to move blood out of the brain against the force of gravity. M Blood pools in the head and chest.
John lost the pulses in his legs some hours before he died. Accident report: http://www.swiss-cave-diving.ch/PDF-dateien/NSS-CavingAccidents_2009-2010.pdf
Other articles mention that he was crying out in pain when his legs hit against the ceiling. They cite circulation in his legs as the cause of his extreme discomfort. That confirms that his legs were dying (due to no blood going to his legs).
He also said they were killing him before that: “John said, “It sucks; I’m upside down. I can’t believe I’m upside down.” But he smiled. “My legs are killing me.”” (https://www.sltrib.com/news/2018/07/10/nutty-putty-were-going/)
They were ischemic for hours! Barring a miracle, they’d definitely both need to be amputated.
He had pulses in his legs (although probably very weak) up until the last ~4-5 hours apparently. This tells me that his body had activated compensatory mechanisms that were sufficient to maintain some level of perfusion in his legs. These would include sympathetic nervous system effects that would force his heart to beat harder (positive inotropy) and faster (positive chronotropy) in an effort to raise blood pressure and push the blood from his head all the way to his legs. This circuit had to be perfused over…and over… and over. When compensatory mechanisms were exhausted and organs burned out, he lost his pedal (and probably femoral) pulses. This makes me wonder how much permanent damage his heart had already sustained. I think he would come out of there needing an LVAD or heart transplant.
Anyway, with 2 dead legs, he’d be very hard to get out of the tunnel. He had to twist himself all sorts of ways to get into that predicament, going around corners and crawling, emptying his lungs off air to shrink his chest size. Imagine trying to get back out of that cave with no operational legs. They’d be dead weight and they’d be in your way. They’d likely have to drag him until they hit larger areas where he could be carried towards the exit.
With his leg muscle dying, how much myoglobin was in his bloodstream? It’s released when muscle tissue dies off or sustains injuries. When it reaches your kidneys, it causes a lot of damage. Also, given time, you’ll have other issues from decaying tissue… infection, for one. This was a horrible situation all around.
If he wasn’t upside down, maybe he could have been cared for and given fluids and minimal basic nutrition by IV so that he’d lose weight and be extractable. I guess he’d be peeing all over himself as they couldn’t reach his bladder to insert a catheter & bag. He’s be stationary for weeks in the same position. This would cause other issues to arise.
Why not remove the body? It would be impossible. It could only come out in pieces, if even. Death would melt the body harder to get out. Rigor mortis would make him stuff and decomposition would cause gas release, swelling his toddies. He’d be even harder to remove dead. They were having him push himself out and making sure those tiny movements were captured by the pulley system (instead of eliminated by gravity pulling him back down). A dead person can’t assist w/ this obviously.
Thanks for taking the time to explain the complex medical issues involved. I really appreciate it.
Thank you for the medical explanation of what was happening to his body. It makes the article make more sense. It’s too bad his death was senseless. Peace to his family.
I’ve spent the most recent three years sourcing valuable gems from different African mines located in countries like Tanzania and mining these stones is incredibly risky; which is why the finished jewel carries such a price tag.
By using ordinary concrete to seal the entrance, authorities are saying that this cave/mine with all its tourism appeal is shit. “There is still nothing interesting about this hole in the ground.”
The families of miners who die the same way can often litigate monetary settlement even if the employing company isn’t at fault; this is a regular occurrence. Jones’ spouse cannot file any claim; her only option would have been to sue the landowner for some kind of negligence.
Plus, the individual who discovered this cave was a mineral prospector. Once he concluded there was no gold or american diamonds(the most recent private mining operation in America was located in Colorado and finished up in 2006), he quit mapping the site. A major challenge in minerals is finding the deposit; if gold had been discovered down there, minimal digging would have been required. So the first guy had a motive to prospect there.
Stay sharp!
your crazy for this response, very interesting and relevant..tbf’s thanks
John was a Mormon not a devote Christian
That explains it