It's not looking good for the miners in Pennsylvania--the drill that they were using to make a new shaft broke its bit, and they're losing valuable time flying in a new one (one wonders why they didn't have a backup already there).

But it seems to me that there's another problem that I haven't seen discussed. They're pumping compressed air in to force back the water. Presumably the air pressure down there is pretty high, and they've been down there a long time, so they've got to be pretty nitrogen saturated. When they rescue them, how are they going to keep them from bending, perhaps fatally, when they come up to surface pressure? Are they just going to medivac them to the nearest hyperbaric chamber?

"Hi guys, we came to rescue you! ... umm, why are you screaming and dying like that?"

ah. from the story at MSN:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/785322.asp?pne=msn

"Decompression chambers were also brought in."

So, they probably won't die from that, if they're not dead already :/

I got this from

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&ncid=578&e=1&cid=578&u=/nm/20020726/ts_nm/energy_miners_dc_18

"Because of the air compression under ground, U.S. Navy ( news - web sites) medical personnel stood by with portable decompression chambers in the event of a rescue.

A naval officer judged the conditions confronting the miners to be equivalent to pressure at 40 feet under water, which would require the miners to undergo decompression."

Prayers, and regards,

Speaking as a scuba diver...
The pressure at 40FSW is just over 2ATM, so nitrogen accumulates slowly. Then again, they've been down there a long time.
Anyway, chambers are on site and the bends rarely presents quickly (except for the odd case of arterial gas embolism, which is more associated with rapid ascent from depths over 100 feet).
If they can get them out, the bends will be fairly easily treatable.

Pure oxygen and aspirin can alleviate some of the worst symptoms of decompression sickness, too. But the bends is really the least of their potential problems.

Glad they got some specialists on hand, though.

All the miners were pulled out late Saturday night/early Sunday Morning with no evidence of bends or hypothermia or anything beyond minor injuries. All but three are out of the hospital now. On FoxNews this morning, they said that ironically, the broken drill bit probably saved their lives, because if they had kept drilling where they were, they would have flooded the air pocket. While waiting for the new bit, they realized their mistake and found a better plan.

A happy ending for all. I"m actually looking forward to the movie of the week for this one.