CBS News reports:

Fresh air and freedom were just hours away Tuesday for 33 miners trapped a half-mile underground for 69 days, men whose endurance and unity have captivated the world. No one in the history of mining has been trapped so long and survived.  The miners will be closely monitored from the moment they’re strapped into the claustrophobic steel tube to be hauled up the smooth-walled tunnel.

For the last six hours before surfacing, they’ll drink a special high-calorie liquid diet prepared and donated by NASA, designed to keep them from vomiting as the rescue capsule rotates 10 to 12 times through curves in the 28-inch-diameter escape hole.  Their pulse, skin temperature and respiration rate will be constantly measured through a biomonitor around their abdomens. To prevent blood clotting from the quick ascent, they took aspirin and will wear compression socks.   The miners will also wear sweaters because they’ll experience a shift in climate from about 90 degrees Fahrenheit underground to temperatures hovering near freezing if they emerge at night.

The last miner out, according the list, will be shift foreman Luiz Urzua, whose leadership was credited for the miners’ survival during the 17 days when they were utterly closed off from the outside world. The men stretched an emergency food supply meant to last just 48 hours by taking tiny sips of milk and bites of tuna fish every other day.

So not only did the guy save everybody’s life, he has to come out last!? We kid, we kid….the rescue is still underway so hopefully everyone makes it out safely.

Tagged as: Chile, Miners, NASA, Oxygen, Rescue, World News