A major rescue effort was underway Thursday to save a wounded Spanish scientist who has been trapped underground in a Peruvian cave for seven days.
Dozens of rescuers from Spain and Peru were on the scene to free Cecilio Lopez, a speleologist, from the narrow depths of the Inti Machay cave in Peru's Leimebamba district, The Spain Report has learned.
The speleologist, who studies caves, sustained a spinal injury when he fell 16 feet inside the cave and is now trapped about 1,300 feet underground, the Associated Press reported. James Aspaestegui, the rescue coordinator, said a doctor was able to reach Lopez but his spinal injury has left him mostly immobile.
"Cecilio Lopez is lying face-up. He can move laterally but he cannot stand up," Aspaestegui told the AP. "He's accompanied (by someone at all times), and is waiting for the stretcher to arrive to begin the evacuation," he said, adding that Lopez remains positive.
Inti Machay's narrow interior and rural location, nearly 400 miles northeast of the capital Lima, also make the rescue effort more arduous. Crews were able to bring hot food to Lopez and he is being kept warm, according to The Spain Report. But with constant rain in the area, rescuers say they won't reach the wounded scientist for at least another day.
"If the weather holds out, the rest of the teams will take another day and a half to get up there, and then, if all goes well, another day or so to bring him all the way up," Angel San Juan, chairman of the Madrid Spelunking Federation, told The Spain Report.
Rescuers seem to have control of the situation, but the Spanish government is taking heat for apparently not providing enough funds and rescuers to save Lopez. Any Spanish caver who wants to join the effort in Peru has to do so on their own dime, according to the newspaper.
When asked why the government wasn't providing funds for the cavers, a Spanish Foreign Office spokeswoman said they "didn't have a budget for rescuing Spaniards who have accidents whilst taking part in private sporting activities abroad."
