Mine Survivor Receives Oxygen Treatments

Jan. 6, 2006 — -- Randal McCloy Jr., the sole survivor of the Sago Mine tragedy, remains unconscious and in a medical coma at Pittsburgh's Allegheny Hospital. He's in critical but stable condition.

McCloy has responded to his wife's voice, even squeezing her hand. But doctors fear he may have suffered brain damage from carbon monoxide poisoning even though his initial tests did not reveal the presence of the lethal gas.

Since yesterday, he has been receiving hyperbaric oxygen treatments, which flood the body with 20 times the normal concentration of oxygen. The hope is that it will flush the carbon monoxide from his brain and help his other damaged organs.

But his doctors admit it's a long shot. A recent study found little evidence that the treatment helped the brain to heal. And doctors warn that any improvement will take days or weeks.

His wife, Anna McCloy, and his mother, Tambra Flint, both said they saw him respond to their presence.

"I know he knows when I'm there because when I'm there he gets excited and he lifts his eyelids to try to look at me," McCloy said.

"When we discuss things with him like going fishing and hunting, he gets excited also," Flint said.

McCloy said she also saw a response when she brought their children into the room.

"He got excited," she said. "He knew those were his babies."

She said she explained her husband's condition to their 4-year-old son by telling him "that Daddy wasn't feeling well, that he had worked long hours, that he he was getting some rest."

There have been many theories as to how McCloy survived being trapped in the mine when the other 12 men did not. Some say it's because McCloy, 26, was the youngest. Others -- including his mother -- speculate that other miners gave him their oxygen masks.

"I have a feeling that they did," Flint said.

Gayle Conelly Manchin, the first lady of West Virginia, asked for prayers.

"I would just ask the world to continue to offer your prayers to Anna and her family and also to those 12 other families that are dealing with such grief right now," she said.

Flint explained how she was making it through this difficult time.

"Any little glimmer of hope we get just brightens our whole day," she said.