Nutty putty cave incident body free#

It would take over an hour for any rescue team to get equipment to where John was located in the cave. Being 400 ft into the cave, every entrance and exit took at least 30 minutes. Josh Jones, John’s brother, headed to the surface in order to call a rescue team to assist his brother. John was unable to do something as simple as scratch his face. His arms became pinned underneath his chest. Because of the smallness of the space he is in, he is unable to be assisted in any way. The passage way is angled so sharply that as John slides, his body turns nearly completely upside down. His brother Josh attempt to pull at his calves to no avail.

Nutty putty cave incident body free#

A Slide Into HellĪs John attempts to wiggle and free himself from his tight position, he slides further and further down the passage way. Once through the passage, John exhaled, making his 6’1 body too large to even move at all. In order to fit through the incredibly small space, John inhaled. In an attempt to push forward to find space to turn around, John pulled himself through a 10 inch by 10 inch passage. After inching his way forward, John discovered that he was unable to make any kind of turn to get out. John moved into the passage head-first, using his fingers to inch forward. He had actually instead found a smaller tunnel in the are of the cave known as ‘Ed’s Push’. Unknown to John, he had not entered the passage seen above. See a photo of a woman in that ‘Birth Canal’ passage below… There was talk originally about trying to remove his body from the cave even after he died, but everyone, including family, decided to leave him there.Upon entering the cave, John Jones found a passage that he thought was called ‘the Birth Canal’. And there were resources in place that could have gotten him out had there been time.”

Based on how John was stuck, I think everything that could be done was done. “I don’t question that things were done wrong or there was more that could have been done because I don’t believe there was. “It was not an outcome we anticipated at the outset and certainly really weren’t prepared for at the end,” said Sgt.

The lesson for responders is, sometimes, even when you do everything right, it might not make a difference. Doug Murdock, who was also at this morning’s conference and was the person who pronounced Jones dead on that cold November day. I think the day that you think that you’ve seen it all and learned it all, you should retire,” said Dr. It’s also an operation many first responders and search & rescue teams who were involved that day still talk about. It’s a story many people remember because of the tragic way in which he died. He left behind his wife, who was pregnant, and another child. Jones was never freed from the spot where he got stuck and eventually died in the cave, about 28 hours after he couldn’t go any further.

Of the dozens of rescuers, we had that day, only five were small enough to go down there and get to him.” “That’s the amount of space we had to work. Cannon while holding up a small square barely large enough to go over his chest. “There was an area prior to where John got stuck that he went through that was about this size,” said Sgt. However, cases like Nutty Putty prove that doesn’t always happen. Rescuers always think they’re going to save someone, especially if the person is alive when they reach them.