AP interview with sole survivor of Sago Mine disaster

Описание: (30 Mar 2006)
29 March 2006
1. McCloy and brother walking shot
2. SOUNDBITE: (English) Randal McCloy Jr., Sago Mine Survivor
"Not really much..."
3. SOUNDBITE: (English) Anna McCloy, Randal's wife
"He says he only remembers bits and pieces, bits and pieces of it."
4. McCloy and brother walking shot
5. SOUNDBITE: (English) Randal McCloy Jr., Sago Mine Survivor
"Yeah, I do miss them."
Q: "When you think about them, how do you remember them? What do you think about?"
"Well, I try to leave out all the gory details and stuff like that because I don't like to look at them in that light and that way. I just like to picture them saved and in heaven, stuff like that."
6. McCloy and brother walking shot
7. SOUNDBITE: (English) Randal McCloy Jr., Sago Mine Survivor
"The carbon monoxide level was very high and I have no explanation of how I escaped it...and survived. It's just crazy how that ended up being like that."
8. Various shots of McCloy in pool therapy
9. Cutaway to Anna McCloy and brother watching therapy session
10. SOUNDBITE: (English) Randal McCloy Jr., Sago Mine Survivor
Q: "Do you have any interest in going back underground?"
"No, I done learned my lesson...the hard way."
11. McCloy in pool therapy
30 March 2006
12. Pan as McCloy is introduced at news conference
13. SOUNDBITE: (English) Randal McCloy Jr., Sago Mine Survivor
"I thank everybody for their thoughts and prayers, and I believe that is it."
14. Pull back view of news conference
STORYLINE:
Randal McCloy Jr.'s memories of the 41 hours he lay trapped inside the Sago Mine are, "not much really," just fragmented images he would rather forget.
And when he thinks of the 12 friends and co-workers who slowly succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning after the January 2 explosion, he pictures them elsewhere.
"I try to leave out all the gory details and stuff like that because I don't like to look at them in that light and that way," he told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "I just like to picture them saved and in heaven, stuff like that.
Doctors say McCloy, 26, was perhaps minutes from death when he was pulled from the coal mine on January 4 with kidney, lung, liver and heart damage.
He was in a coma for weeks, suffering from severe brain injuries.
But on Thursday, after three months of intensive rehabilitation, he was expected to return home.
Doctors have repeatedly called McCloy a miracle, unable to explain why only the youngest of the 13 miners survived.
He is a fitness buff who ate well, lifted weights and rode bicycles. He doesn't smoke. But McCloy himself remains mystified.
"I have no explanation of how I escaped it and survived," he said. "It's just crazy how that ended up being like that."
Some people speculated McCloy was deeper inside the mine, farther from the poisoned air. But he says he was "pretty much in the same area all the time."
His throat still bears a deep purple mark from a long-since-removed feeding tube, but his voice is clear and soft.
In the pool at Health South Mountainview Regional Rehabilitation Hospital, McCloy is still working with therapists to regain agility and reflexes.
He will continue to use weights to help speed up his recovery after returning home.
Someday, he will start to think about work again. He's considering attending a vocational school, maybe to study electronics.
But he won't be going back underground. "No, I done learned my lesson," he said. "The hard way."
McCloy addressed an eager crowd of media at the hospital on Thursday morning.

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