"Everything is normal, will send them home soon": Doctor on rescued workers

Health checkup of 41 people rescued from the collapsed Silkyara Tunnel in Uttarakhand is being done at AIIMS, Rishikesh. Probably they can be sent back home today. The hospital said that the condition of all the workers is normal and their preliminary investigation has just been done.

Professor Meenu Singh, Executive Director and CEO of AIIMS-Rishikesh, said, "He is absolutely normal, I would not even call him a patient. He is feeling absolutely normal, he is behaving very normally. His blood pressure, vitality, Oxygenation - Everything is normal. We have done some basic preliminary tests just to see, like his electrolytes and other blood parameters. The report will come soon and we will also do his ECG to see if there is any effect on the heart. ."

Singh said, "These are very basic investigations that we will do. We will also do a basic psychological assessment so that we can follow up later - whether this incident is having any impact on him on a long-term basis."

He said that they are not ill. A decision will be taken today on sending them home. 41 workers were rescued from the tunnel on Tuesday after nearly 17 days of rescue operation conducted by several agencies of the central and state governments.

National and Disaster Relief Force, Indian Army, police and several other agencies worked round the clock to free people trapped under the collapsed Silkyara tunnel in Uttarakhand. Another key figure in the operation was tunnel expert Errol Dix who advised the government and agencies during the rescue.

Dix said that a "soft, gradual" approach to drilling escape holes and assessing the impact of the auger on the already fragile and "still moving" mountainous terrain was key to the operation.