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Post by Sharon Faulkner on Aug 25, 2007 23:12:25 GMT -5
Caver alive but injured in Nelson caves26 August 2007 Emergency services are trying to rescue a caver, who is alive but injured, in an underground caving network near Nelson. A police spokesman told NZPA Nelson police search and rescue have been working since 11pm yesterday to try to rescue the man, who has head and leg injuries. The party of four cavers from Nelson were exploring and surveying the Green Link/Middle Earth cave system on the Takaka Hill, near Nelson when the 47-year-old man was hit by a rock at 5pm and fell. Rescuers intended to take the caver out on a stretcher but it would be a slow and difficult task along a route with vertical lifts and narrow passages, he said. Police were waiting for a communications system to be delivered to the caver, which was expected to take another two hours. Article----------------------------------------- Caver injured in Middle Earth26 August 2007 A caver exploring and surveying the Green Link/Middle earth system under Takaka Hill has serious injuries. The caver stuck underground near Nelson is conscious but unable to move. The 47-year-old was exploring and surveying the Green Link/Middle earth cave system under Takaka Hill with three others late yesterday afternoon Tasman Search and Rescue coordinator Inspector Hugh Flower says the man was struck by a rock around 5pm and fell, injuring his head and leg. He says the man is about as far down as you can go, which is about three kilometres underground. Inspector Flower says retrieving him is not going to be an easy task because there are lots of ups and downs and narrow squeezes. A Search and Rescue team including a doctor has entered the cave and plans to stretcher him out. the challenges they face include safely executing many vertical lifts and working through narrow passages. Rescuers warn the task will be slow and difficult. It could take anywhere between two and three days to winch the injured man to safety. ArticleAnd one more: New Zealand rescue team heads deep underground to aid injured cave climber
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Post by Sharon Faulkner on Aug 26, 2007 1:24:57 GMT -5
Contact expected with injured caver soon26 Aug 2007 A rescue team is expected to reach an injured man stuck in a cave near Nelson on Sunday evening. Dr Michael Brewer, aged 40, from Riwaka, was in a caving group in the "Middle Earth" system under the Takaka Hill when a falling rock broke his leg at about 5pm Saturday. Article
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Post by Brad Tipton on Aug 26, 2007 11:33:16 GMT -5
That must be one tough cave if it took them 6 hours just to reach the surface to call for help. I can't think of a cave in TAG that I have been to that I couldn't reach the surface in a dead heat in at least 4 hours. Those guys are going to have a hard time getting him out.
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Post by Sharon Faulkner on Aug 26, 2007 19:29:04 GMT -5
Think it's going to be a long process to get him out of the cave. Poor guy, at least he has a doctor with him. Massive rescue operation still underwayAug 27, 2007 Search and Rescue co-ordinator Inspector Hugh Flower says fellow cavers began inching the 47-year-old out of the underground cavern on Sunday night. But he says it is extremely challenging with rescuers calling upon all their skills, with about 10 underground cliff faces needing to be scaled. Flower says despite his injuries, Mike Brewer remains in good spirits. He says Brewer's wife spoke to him by radio late on Sunday afternoon and he sounded quite cheerful. He says it could be late on Tuesday before Brewer is lifted to safety. New Zealand News ArticleCaving photo of Brewer and wife Sara, both experienced cavers included with this article.
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Brian Roebuck
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Post by Brian Roebuck on Aug 27, 2007 5:33:02 GMT -5
Hopefully we'll hear they got him out in good shape. There are many places we cavers go where it would be extremely difficult to be rescued from. Some places I've been would make rescue nearly impossible for certain injuries I am sure. It is a risk you sometimes take but a calculated one. More below. There is a video on this website as well that shows the vertical extent of the cave system (10th deepest cave system in New Zealand) as well as some of the tight spots he must get through. tvnz.co.nz/view/page/423466/1324028"Trickiest" cave rescue crawls ahead Aug 27, 2007 9:36 PM Injured caver Dr Michael Brewer was two thirds of the way out of tunnels near Takaka late Monday and revised estimates have him out at around daylight on Tuesday. Brewer, 47, has been in the Middle Earth cave system since Saturday night when he was hit by falling rocks three kilometres into the tunnels. He has suspected concussion, a pelvic fracture, cracked ribs and is on morphine. Rescue co-ordinator Inspector Hugh Flower says Brewer has been passed through a tight section known as "the wiggle". He says while the last third of the trip is not as difficult as some previous passages, it is not easy. Flower says the rescuers are in good spirits and Brewer is helping with caving expertise and advice.
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Post by stringermike on Aug 27, 2007 8:29:41 GMT -5
Just home after playing a very minor role in this rescue. Patient should either be very close to the surface if indeed not out by now.
Cave used to have some tight squeezes that had to be opened up to allow passage for injured party. Mammoth effort by all to retrieve him, many (not including me) spending 24+ hours underground.
Media circus above ground, but overall well co-ordinated and executed rescue by Police/Army/LandSAR and caving community (some flown in nationally).
Last time I saw the patient he was in good humour and holding up well, still had a 35m pitch to be hauled up and then a boulder choke.
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Post by Sharon Faulkner on Aug 27, 2007 8:34:04 GMT -5
Thanks for the update Mike, and welcome to the forum. Nice to have some first hand information from someone on scene. Sounds like the New Zealand caving community and other rescue personnel have done an excellent job thus far. Hope all continues well.
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L Roebuck
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Post by L Roebuck on Aug 27, 2007 12:11:24 GMT -5
Thanks for the update and the video Mike! Here's the latest news! ------- Rescuers lift out injured caver after three days5:00AM Tuesday August 28, 2007 By Derek Cheng, The New Zealand Herald Injured caver Michael Brewer was hauled to safety early today after spending nearly three days deep beneath Takaka Hill. Cheers broke out at the cave entrance as the Motueka GP emerged on a stretcher. His wife Sarah and their daughters - Anna, 15, and Alex, 13 - were waiting as rescuers left behind the dark cave into a clear, moonlit night at 1.15am. Full Article
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Post by Brad Tipton on Aug 29, 2007 11:26:42 GMT -5
I loved the part of the news report where the reporter said "cavers toiled tirelessly for 3 days...." That just sounds so strange. The report said the dude has been rescued from the same cave before! He needs to stay away from there for a while.
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NZcaver
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Post by NZcaver on Aug 29, 2007 12:42:33 GMT -5
I loved the part of the news report where the reporter said "cavers toiled tirelessly for 3 days...." That just sounds so strange. The report said the dude has been rescued from the same cave before! He needs to stay away from there for a while. I think "toiled tirelessly" is one of those terms the media use because it sounds impressive. They were tired. Any multi-day rescue is going to be done in (long) shifts, but as you can imagine when you're off shift you're often too wired to sleep much until it's all over. Yes, back in May 1992 Dr. Brewer and another caver were stranded for 36 hours in a different part of the Middle Earth cave system. As I recall, this incident was due to circumstances beyond their control. Neither was injured, although a rescue callout was needed to assist them. Meanwhile, Dr. Brewer has responded to numerous other cave rescues over the years. I think he has more than earned an occasional ride in a stretcher. You should be so lucky to have someone like him respond when you need help in a cave.
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Post by Brad Tipton on Aug 29, 2007 15:52:03 GMT -5
That was one tough guy to have a broken pelvis and manage to stand being removed from the ferno multiple times to get through impassable areas. I imagine that was quite painful. NZ, how much vertical was required to get him to the surface?
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NZcaver
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Post by NZcaver on Aug 29, 2007 18:57:00 GMT -5
That was one tough guy to have a broken pelvis and manage to stand being removed from the ferno multiple times to get through impassable areas. I imagine that was quite painful. NZ, how much vertical was required to get him to the surface? I can only imagine how painful that broken pelvis was. They administered painkillers, but apparently he was still lucid and in relatively good spirits for the whole evac. It was reported that the accident site was 400m (vertically) below the entrance, and a 3km journey away. There were multiple drops that required rigging, plenty of traversing nasty tight rifts, and some loose rock here and there. FYI - Although I've made some recent phone calls to NZ, all the info here has come from the excellent NZ media coverage. In case you missed the tag next to my avatar, I live in the US and was not connected with this incident. I have not yet even ventured into that system - maybe some day...
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Post by Brad Tipton on Aug 29, 2007 21:01:11 GMT -5
I figured you might have visited prior to living in the US
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Brian Roebuck
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Caving - the one activity that really brings you to your knees!
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Post by Brian Roebuck on Aug 29, 2007 21:20:17 GMT -5
Well I'm glad he got out in good shape. I can imagine being dragged through tight spots with a fractured pelvis, even with pain killers, is risky and agonizing. He is lucky and tough. Of course what are your options when injured in such a place? You have to do what is required to get out.
Thanks to all for the coverage and interesting discussion.
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Post by Colin NZ on Aug 30, 2007 21:41:18 GMT -5
That must be one tough cave if it took them 6 hours just to reach the surface to call for help. I can't think of a cave in TAG that I have been to that I couldn't reach the surface in a dead heat in at least 4 hours. Those guys are going to have a hard time getting him out. I took the 2.5 hours to reach the surface The call for help might have been about 6 hours after the accident - they did not leave the accident site for a while. Mike had to come around and they had to access his injuries, move him a short distance and make him comfortable before 2 of party of 4 left for the entrance
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Post by Colin NZ on Aug 30, 2007 21:47:35 GMT -5
Well I'm glad he got out in good shape. I can imagine being dragged through tight spots with a fractured pelvis, even with pain killers, is risky and agonizing. He is lucky and tough. Of course what are your options when injured in such a place? You have to do what is required to get out. Thanks to all for the coverage and interesting discussion. We are lucky to have an ER specialist who is also a caver in Nelson. She was in the first party to make it back into the cave to Mike. Mike was able to use his arms to help fend the stretcher off obstacles. This was a definate bonus and helped speed things up. He was not shy to tell us when things were not comfortable (but he said it in a nice way) . He had to be take out of the strecher twice
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Post by Sharon Faulkner on Aug 30, 2007 22:17:05 GMT -5
Hi Colin and welcome to U.S. Cavers Forum. Thank you for providing additional information on the rescue. From everything I've heard and read about the incident it sounds as if the rescue was planned and executed flawlessly from start to finish.
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Post by Colin NZ on Aug 31, 2007 3:56:16 GMT -5
We had a National Cave SAREX in March this year. As such not long since we last had a practice together. NZ is a small place - as such any big rescue like this is a national response.
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Brian Roebuck
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Post by Brian Roebuck on Aug 31, 2007 5:13:26 GMT -5
Welcome Colin and many thanks for your great replies. We're all glad Mike made it out OK and we wish him a speedy recovery!
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Post by Colin NZ on Sept 2, 2007 0:31:35 GMT -5
Nelson Mail > Features > Weekend > Story Surface Tension The Nelson Mail | Saturday, 1 September 2007 Email a Friend | Printable View | Have Your Say
RESCUE MISSION: Cavers with Michael Brewer consider their next move through part of the Middle Earth cave system on the Takaka Hill. HAMISH PIRIE/Supplied Related Links • Subscribe to Archivestuff • Have your say Advertisement
Advertisement The subterranean limestone maze beneath Takaka Hill was the scene this week of the toughest cave rescue mission ever attempted in New Zealand. Kiran Chug delves behind the success of Operation Brewer. In the damp, dark depths of the Middle Earth caves under Takaka Hill, Bruce Mutton heard the loud scraping of rock on rock then the piercing yells of his caving partner. He wanted to turn around and walk away. They were 400m underground, four hours into a confusing caving system, and Mutton had just heard the sound of his companion, Motueka doctor Michael Brewer, being struck by a falling rock. New Zealand's most difficult cave rescue operation was about to begin. Nearly six hours later, assistant search and rescue coordinator Sherp Tucker received a phone call. As he listened calmly, his mind clicked into planning mode. This was going to be a big one. He went straight to the Nelson search and rescue office and launched Operation Brewer. He called in search and rescue staff, alerted those who would need to come in and take over on Sunday morning, and started calling cavers from around the country. The response was unprecedented. Caving groups flew en masse to Nelson, caterers made sure there was hot food and drink for everybody involved and the army stepped in with transport. Tucker had the commitment he needed from the community to get Brewer out, and he was feeling positive. Operation Brewer, which would involve 98 search and rescue staff and see 68 people go underground, was under way. Brewer, Mutton and fellow cavers Jane Furkett and Claire McElwain had entered the caves at 10am on Saturday to survey the connection between the Green Link and Middle Earth caves. Mutton says existing maps drawn up in the 1970s were inaccurate, and a passage into Green Link from Middle Earth discovered 10 years ago was yet to be mapped. The team had a successful day and ate a meal before starting to make their way towards the surface around 5pm. Mutton was at the tail end of the group and only heard Brewer fall. Unsure whether more rocks would fall, he gingerly made his way towards Brewer. Still screaming, Brewer was lying head down, only a small distance above a stream of water. The group talked to him and answered the same seven or eight questions he initially kept repeating. Gradually, Brewer became more lucid. Using his medical knowledge, he directed Mutton to check his back to establish the extent of his injuries. The team decided to remove Brewer's backpack, which had been supporting his back, and move him into an upright position. It took them 1? hours. Despite having concussion and a broken pelvis, Brewer was determined to get out of the caves himself and spent some time "psyching himself up" to do it. But Mutton says it took an hour to move him 10 metres. They needed help. After building a little rock wall, and putting down bedrolls and blankets for Brewer to lie on, Mutton and McElwain went for help. It had been two hours since the accident, but Mutton says he had not even considered leaving the cave until then. On his way out, he tried to memorise various features of the route so he could create an accurate map for a rescue team. But as he scaled a 40m pitch, crawled through narrow tunnels and squeezed his body through crevices, Mutton wondered how his caving mate would get out of Middle Earth. "I am not usually pessimistic, but I couldn't see how some of the obstacles could be got around." Mutton and McElwain reached the surface just before 11pm and called search and rescue adviser Greg Pickford to tell him what had happened. For 20 years, Mutton had carried a victim assessment form in his helmet. Using it for the first time that night, he had documented everything that had happened and could now relay the information over the phone. Pickford called Tucker in Nelson, and planning got under way. Tucker says there was no time to be anxious and that he simply went through the processes he was trained for. "I realised the gravity of the situation. The only emotion was that this was going to be big." That night, Tucker organised a medical team that would go into the caves with medication, food and basic supplies for the injured Brewer. A communications team was set up that would go in next with a michie phone, a 9km long wire which would allow the cavers to make contact with a base above ground. Other teams of cavers were also set up, each with specific tasks. While one team would carry Brewer on a stretcher, another would work ahead setting up rigging equipment, and others would be sent in to relieve resting rescuers. Only 60 or 70 cavers around the country had the necessary skills and experience to help with the underground rescue. Tucker put in calls to them. A plane was hired to bring in cavers from Hamilton, New Plymouth and Wellington. Others from Christchurch and Auckland were booked on to flights at short notice. Others drove to the rescue site. Tucker says attempts to hire a bus to bring in cavers were futile. A busy weekend of college sports meant there was none available. One quick phone call to the army later and three Unimog trucks and four army drivers joined Operation Brewer. After a night of planning, the first medical team went into the cave at 5am on Sunday. The Motueka SAR base remained full of people, organising, preparing, monitoring. But, with search and rescue management staff working 12-hour shifts, Tucker had another difficult task ahead of him - walking away from the job at 7am to get some rest. Tasman district search and rescue coordinator Inspector Hugh Flower and search and rescue officer Sergeant Mike Fitzsimons took over. By lunch time, Seventh Day Adventists had set themselves up at the cave entrance to make tea and coffee for the cavers, and were also feeding those at the Motueka base. More than 40 cavers had arrived or were on their way, volunteer radio operators and administrative staff were busy at the base, but there was an anxious wait for news from Middle Earth. Then at 5.30pm, word finally came back through the michie phone. Fitzsimons says that call eased fears that Brewer had suffered a serious head injury. Although he had a fractured pelvis, suspected broken ribs and concussion, it could have been much worse. Underground, the cavers were ready to start moving, and at 8.30pm the journey began. Meanwhile, after a few hours sleep at the Brewer house, Mutton had returned to the SAR base to help with the rescue. At 1.30pm on Sunday, he went back underground with "team three". They collected rigging equipment, and finally, 27 hours after the accident happened, lifted the stretcher and headed towards the surface. The first stage of the rescue involved walking through a stream bed, but just before Pooh Corner was one of the toughest squeezes the rescuers would encounter. Mutton says they lifted Dr Brewer above their heads to pack him through a narrow gap on his side. It took them three hours. From Pooh Corner, rescuers crawled through a section where the roof grazed their backs, but Mutton says they were able keep Brewer in his stretcher. Not every passage was so simple. Before negotiating the mammoth Room of Ships, which Mutton says consists of big holes in the floor and rocks the size of a lounge, the rescuers had a rest. Brewer was given more medication, and a 7m climb along the side of the rock face was attempted. After an hour spent lifting the stretcher up and trying to fit it through a passage, Mutton says rescuers gave in - a straight 2m stretcher was not going to fit. They turned Brewer on to his injured left side and dragged him through the rocks. Only a few hours later, the rescuers reached the Bungy Chamber. Mutton says rocks had recently been moved in the area, and it had been left unstable. Here more than anywhere, they were afraid. But Brewer, with his face pushed in against the rock, used his arms and slid up the rock face. They took another rest. By the early hours of Monday, Mutton says he was "walking asleep" and had slowed considerably. The team could smell breakfast, but it took them an hour to travel 30m to reach it. Next came a diagonal haul which involved precise and minuscule rope position adjustments, and a crawl through the sandy floor of the Dig - a passage where cavers usually had only a few centimetres of air space around them, but had been hollowed out for the mission. From here, Mutton says it was a fairly straightforward route into Smaug's Hall, where one of three soup kitchens along the route had been set up for the rescuers. After army rations of beef and lamb stew, and cups of hot tea and coffee, they could rest. Mutton decided from here he would turn over his task to a relieving team and head out of the caves. When he reached the surface, he had spent 23 hours and 50 minutes underground. For Brewer, the most painful and worrying section of the journey was yet to come. Between Smaug's Hall and the Let Me Go Squeeze, was a fairly vertical narrow climb, with a lack of foot holds and backward- sloping arch, which Mutton says would take an able-bodied caver an hour to negotiate. It became obvious Brewer would again have to be taken out of his stretcher. In the end, he was hauled up hanging from a rope hooked under his armpits. Throughout Monday, exhausted rescuers continued to edge Brewer through caves that Hugh Flower described as "busy as a beehive". At the Motueka SAR base, he and Fitzsimons were on shift, aware that while progress was steady, there were still major obstacles to overcome. Fitzsimons had been into Middle Earth on a training exercise and, knowing how tight the squeezes were, he was worried about how they would be negotiated. Almost 2m tall, Fitzsimons says one of the scariest moments of his life was getting stuck in one of the first squeezes. "The Hold Me Tight Squeeze held me so tight I never got to Let Me Go", he says. But in the end, says Fitzsimons, the squeezes were "desqueezed". Cavers go underground to experience untouched and pristine natural landscapes, but a 2m stretcher could not have been carried out of Middle Earth as it was. Fitzsimons says cavers will regret that some rocks had to be blasted away, but not even the most conservative will dispute that it had to be done. Tucker says there was never any option. "If you've got a human life on one side of a brick wall, you take the brick wall away. That's what we went down there to do, to take the man out." Mutton realised rocks would be blasted away while making his way through Hold Me Tight and Let Me Go on his way to get help. "At the Brewers' I had a bit of a cry, half for Mike, and half for the cave. I knew the cave was going to be significantly damaged. It would never be the same again." When Brewer was told rescuers would blast rocks from two squeezes notorious for the technical challenges they posed, he had mixed emotions. He was glad the decision that would see him reach the surface had been made, but knew it was a shame the cave would be changed forever. Because of the blasting, Brewer's rescuers managed to get him through the squeezes and, buoyed by the knowledge they had one last hurdle to climb, they reached the bottom of the final 40m pitch at 10pm on Monday. The communications team used the michie phone to contact those above ground. Brewer was nearly out. At 1.16am, his daughters Anna and Alix, and wife Sarah, helped to carry his stretcher out of Middle Earth and on to Takaka Hill. While the Summit Rescue Helicopter whisked him to Nelson Hospital, cavers, cold and caked in dirt, wrapped their fingers around mugs of tea and coffee. Any signs of their elation were overshadowed by their obvious exhaustion. Sarah, an experienced caver and search and rescue management coordinator, expressed her immediate relief and gratitude to everybody who had pitched in to help her husband. As his rescue neared an end, she says the hours seemed to pass increasingly slowly. However, the family had been into the start of the caves before and being able to explain to her daughters where their father was in the final stages was reassuring. Mutton says he lay in his bed, "blissfully unaware", that his friend was finally above ground. He had gone home to sleep, confident Brewer was in safe hands and would "get out at some stage". Flower, who was off-shift, was telephoned as requested with the good news. Half an hour later he heard the helicopter whirring into Nelson, and settled back to sleep. At the Motueka SAR base, cheers were followed by a careful inspection of the sweepstake that volunteers, journalists, cavers and rescuers had set up to ease the tension of waiting. Nelson caver and search and rescue adviser Oz Patterson came out trumps, with a guess of Brewer being carried out of the cave at 1.30am. Tucker later joked that second and third place had gone to a chef and a radio messenger, and if either of them had beaten the SAR team, heads would have rolled. His joke is impossible to believe. Tucker says frequently his results prove he has the best SAR team in the country. He is always on the lookout for more volunteers to join the 35 who train every month "to be better than better". Their positivity, he says, is vital to their success. But another key factor must be his own optimism and belief in those around him. "There was never any doubt we would get him out," he says. Tucker says Operation Brewer achieved the only result the SAR team was going to accept. While the police organise and resource such missions, Tucker's gratitude to the wider community echoes the thanks Brewer gave from his hospital bed. From the unknown Motueka woman who walked into the SAR base to give $100 to help with the rescue, to the people who dropped everything to assist - he says the goodwill shown by the community was outstanding. Brewer also says he feels humbled by the number of well-wishers who have called, emailed, faxed and written to him. Having been involved in many cave rescues himself, he says he is impressed at how impressively this one - the trickiest he has ever seen - was handled. And while at the start of the week he was thinking of "retiring from caving", Brewer admits he will probably be back one day to finish mapping Middle Earth. First, though, he will have some negotiating to do with his wife, who has banned him from the system. Rescuers spent 29 hours carrying Brewer, who was underground for 63 hours, out of Middle Earth. He knows the accident could have been much worse, and says he would like to think the rock that hit him had been dislodged by a caver earlier in the day. To believe such an accident could have been caused by random rockfall would be far scarier, he says. Now the popular Motueka general practitioner is recovering at home, replying to well-wishers, and helping rewrite search and rescue protocols, as requested by his wife. He is sore, bruised and unable to bear weight on his left side, but still smiling and joking that some good has come from his accident - for at least the next six weeks, he's been let off his vacuuming duties and the children will be doing all the dishes.
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