An example below of admittedly last resort option : Idea Title: Anaesthetise boys and remove from cave. Idea Description: The boys would be anaesthetised, in

An example below of admittedly last resort option : Idea Title: Anaesthetise boys and remove from cave. Idea Description: The boys would be anaesthetised, intubated (tube down throat to protect airway) placed in waterproof bag and pulled from cave by diver. Portable battery operated ventilators can ventilate a sedated patient for well more than 3 hours required to extract them. Ideally a long acting sedative/anaesthetic could be used and readministered at the rest spots on the route out. This idea would be a last resort for boys who were unable to use scuba equipment. My level of expertise: While I am a doctor I am not trained in anaesthetics and have forgotten everything I learned in a PADI diving course 25 years ago. Gaps in my knowledge: 1 I don’t know what equipment would be required to ensure stabilisation of an endotracheal tube in a patient being dragged through a cave. E.g. If the endotracheal tube leaked or came out of the trachea, then 1. The patient would no longer be ventilated and would die within minutes, and 2. The thick plastic bag they are held within would begin to inflate making them difficult to manoeuvre and potentially trapping them in narrow crevasses. 2. Susceptibility of battery operated ventilators to minor water infiltration is an unknown. 3. Availability of large thick waterproof vinyl dry-bag required to protect the patient.