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PITTSBURGH (AP) -- The lone survivor of a coal mine explosion underwent a second oxygen treatment Friday at a Pittsburgh hospital where he is being treated for carbon monoxide poisoning.
Dr. Richard Shannon, who is leading the team of doctors treating the miner at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, said McCloy's first oxygen treatments went well. Doctors said McCloy has shown some movements when his medications are reduced at times.
"We'll keep him medically sedated as long as possible," Shannon said.
McCloy was taken by ambulance Thursday from West Virginia University's Ruby Memorial Hospital to Allegheny General Hospital, where he remained in critical condition.
Shannon said that he was heavily sedated so that he could undergo treatment in a hyperbaric chamber that would bombard his body with oxygen to battle carbon monoxide poisoning and get much needed air to his damaged organs.
Doctors could not yet determine to what extent if any McCloy sustained neurological damage.
"He moves spontaneously. He opens his eyes. He bites on the (breathing) tube," Shannon told CBS' "The Early Show" Friday morning. It was unclear whether or not McCloy was in a coma or his condition was due to being under heavy sedation.
His family's spirits were seemingly buoyed by McCloy's reactions.
"I know he knows when I'm there because when I'm there, he gets excited," his wife, Anna, said Friday on ABC's "Good Morning America."
"He's trying to lift his eyelids and look at me." She said he also reacted when she brought in their children. "He got excited. You knew that those were his babies." The couple have a son, 4-year-old Randal III, and daughter, 1-year-old Isabel.
McCloy will receive two 90-minute treatments a day over the next three days or possibly longer to remove any remaining amount of carbon monoxide from his body "and, in doing so, to hopefully limit any injury and hasten his recovery," Shannon said.
"We are doing this because we want to leave no stone unturned," he said Thursday night. He said it was too early for a prognosis.
McCloy was rescued early Wednesday after being trapped in the Sago Mine near Tallmansville for more than 42 hours. Twelve other miners died.
Ben Hatfield, president and CEO of International Coal Group, which owns the mine, guessed that McCloy may have been deeper in a barricaded area that he and 11 other miners created after the explosion early Monday, and therefore farther from toxic gases. A 13th miner died in another location.
Relatives called McCloy a quiet family man who did not like working in the mines but stuck it out for three years because it enabled him to provide for his family.
McCloy's father, Randal McCloy Sr., told The Associated Press that he believes - though he has no evidence to support it - that his son survived because his older colleagues dragged him to their makeshift hiding place and shared the last of their oxygen with him because he was the youngest, and had two small children at home.
"Those men were like brothers. They took care of each other," he said.
---
Associated Press writer Vicki Smith in Morgantown, W.Va., contributed to this report.
(c) 2006 The Associated Press
Dr. Richard Shannon, who is leading the team of doctors treating the miner at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, said McCloy's first oxygen treatments went well. Doctors said McCloy has shown some movements when his medications are reduced at times.
"We'll keep him medically sedated as long as possible," Shannon said.
McCloy was taken by ambulance Thursday from West Virginia University's Ruby Memorial Hospital to Allegheny General Hospital, where he remained in critical condition.
Shannon said that he was heavily sedated so that he could undergo treatment in a hyperbaric chamber that would bombard his body with oxygen to battle carbon monoxide poisoning and get much needed air to his damaged organs.
Doctors could not yet determine to what extent if any McCloy sustained neurological damage.
"He moves spontaneously. He opens his eyes. He bites on the (breathing) tube," Shannon told CBS' "The Early Show" Friday morning. It was unclear whether or not McCloy was in a coma or his condition was due to being under heavy sedation.
His family's spirits were seemingly buoyed by McCloy's reactions.
"I know he knows when I'm there because when I'm there, he gets excited," his wife, Anna, said Friday on ABC's "Good Morning America."
"He's trying to lift his eyelids and look at me." She said he also reacted when she brought in their children. "He got excited. You knew that those were his babies." The couple have a son, 4-year-old Randal III, and daughter, 1-year-old Isabel.
McCloy will receive two 90-minute treatments a day over the next three days or possibly longer to remove any remaining amount of carbon monoxide from his body "and, in doing so, to hopefully limit any injury and hasten his recovery," Shannon said.
"We are doing this because we want to leave no stone unturned," he said Thursday night. He said it was too early for a prognosis.
McCloy was rescued early Wednesday after being trapped in the Sago Mine near Tallmansville for more than 42 hours. Twelve other miners died.
Ben Hatfield, president and CEO of International Coal Group, which owns the mine, guessed that McCloy may have been deeper in a barricaded area that he and 11 other miners created after the explosion early Monday, and therefore farther from toxic gases. A 13th miner died in another location.
Relatives called McCloy a quiet family man who did not like working in the mines but stuck it out for three years because it enabled him to provide for his family.
McCloy's father, Randal McCloy Sr., told The Associated Press that he believes - though he has no evidence to support it - that his son survived because his older colleagues dragged him to their makeshift hiding place and shared the last of their oxygen with him because he was the youngest, and had two small children at home.
"Those men were like brothers. They took care of each other," he said.
---
Associated Press writer Vicki Smith in Morgantown, W.Va., contributed to this report.
(c) 2006 The Associated Press
