Miner's road to recovery detours onto Miracle Road
Oren Dorell
USA TODAY
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Morgantown, West Virginia (US):
Randy McCloy, the lone survivor of the Sago Mine explosion that killed 12 of his co-workers, headed home Thursday on newly named Miracle Road to continue the hard work of recovery. McCloy, 26, appeared Thursday morning at a news conference with his doctors and West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin.
His statement was brief. "I just want to thank everybody for their thoughts and prayers," McCloy said in a soft voice.
He paused, then said with a smile, "and I think that's it."McCloy was trapped in the International Coal Group's Sago Mine after an explosion Jan. 2.
When he was brought out 42 hours later, severe carbon-monoxide poisoning had taken a toll. He was barely breathing, he had suffered heart failure, one lung had collapsed, his body temperature was dangerously low, and he was in a coma for about three weeks. Doctors found liver, kidney and brain damage. "It's almost as if he's been resurrected," Biundo says. ________________
See Also:
A true medical miracle
US mine explosion survivor says he's mystified by his own survival
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"He's a gift from God," his mother, Tambra Flint said in an interview. "He's spared for a reason, and I'm really grateful."After almost three months in hospital his clear speech and direct, if unsteady, walk showed why Manchin gave McCloy's street the new name. Still, his recovery is far from over, says Russell Biundo, medical director of HealthSouth MountainView Regional Rehabilitation Hospital, where McCloy was last treated.
He continues to have problems with movement, balance, vision, speech, language and thinking, Biundo said in an interview Thursday. At 6-foot-1, McCloy's weight is down from 170 pounds to 135 pounds. But doctors saw no reason he could not recover fully.
Mar 31, 2006
Oren Dorell
USA TODAY
_________
Morgantown, West Virginia (US):
Randy McCloy, the lone survivor of the Sago Mine explosion that killed 12 of his co-workers, headed home Thursday on newly named Miracle Road to continue the hard work of recovery. McCloy, 26, appeared Thursday morning at a news conference with his doctors and West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin.
His statement was brief. "I just want to thank everybody for their thoughts and prayers," McCloy said in a soft voice.
He paused, then said with a smile, "and I think that's it."McCloy was trapped in the International Coal Group's Sago Mine after an explosion Jan. 2.
When he was brought out 42 hours later, severe carbon-monoxide poisoning had taken a toll. He was barely breathing, he had suffered heart failure, one lung had collapsed, his body temperature was dangerously low, and he was in a coma for about three weeks. Doctors found liver, kidney and brain damage. "It's almost as if he's been resurrected," Biundo says. ________________
See Also:
A true medical miracle
US mine explosion survivor says he's mystified by his own survival
________________
"He's a gift from God," his mother, Tambra Flint said in an interview. "He's spared for a reason, and I'm really grateful."After almost three months in hospital his clear speech and direct, if unsteady, walk showed why Manchin gave McCloy's street the new name. Still, his recovery is far from over, says Russell Biundo, medical director of HealthSouth MountainView Regional Rehabilitation Hospital, where McCloy was last treated.
He continues to have problems with movement, balance, vision, speech, language and thinking, Biundo said in an interview Thursday. At 6-foot-1, McCloy's weight is down from 170 pounds to 135 pounds. But doctors saw no reason he could not recover fully.
Mar 31, 2006
