Cave spelunking sounds like a fun hobby that gets you out of your house and gets your blood pumping. That is, until you get stuck underground and need to be rescued by nearly every emergency response team in the county. A Vanderbilt University student found this out firsthand when he explored Blue Springs Cave in Tennessee.
Blue Springs is the longest cave in the state. It’s a 37-mile subterranean labyrinth. It’s not for the amateur cave spelunker. The unnamed student was on a research trip with classmates when he fell ill while deep inside the cave, three miles deep, to be exact.
Student Rescued After Falling Ill Inside Tennessee Cave
He was unable to move, sparking an emergency rescue that involved several local government agencies and emergency services, including at least 12 different fire departments.
The dozens and dozens of emergency workers who showed up to help crawled through over two miles of cave, followed by 2,000 cramped tunnels just to reach the guy.
Eventually, rescuers found the ill student and carried him out on a type of structure used by cave rescuers called a SKED, a tough bright orange stretcher that wraps around a person’s body like a hard taco shell, outfitted with straps that keep them in place as rescuers navigate them through rocky, uneven terrain.
Everyone braced for a multi-day cave extraction saga…until the student started feeling better and began crawling his way out. It took several hours, but all parties finally emerged mostly unscathed.
Blue Springs Cave is no joke and has a history of telling adventurous humans to back off. Back in 1998, a caver nearly plummeted down a 150-foot waterfall after slipping while navigating a rope bridge called Hanson’s Crossing.
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