Eleven of the 33 miners rushed to the Copiapo Regional Hospital for tests after they were rescued were "better than any prognosis," with two exceptions, said the doctors, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Upon arrival, all of the miners underwent a thoracic and lungs exam. "They are all in perfect conditions except miner Mario Sepulveda, who has silicosis and Mario Gomez, who we found a bit weak" said one of the doctors.
Sepulveda, 39, was the second miner rescued after Florencio Avalos, 31.
Both men were put aboard a Chilean Air Force helicopter and flown to the hospital at Copiapo, the capital of Atacama region, and the closest city to the San Jose copper and gold mine where they had been trapped since an August 5 cave-in.
Souvenirs and song
Sepulveda "is in good spirits, but has silicosis," one of the doctors said.
Silicosis is an irreversible respiratory disease caused by inhaling silica dust, a common ailment among miners.
Upon emerging from the mine, Sepulveda handed out rocks from the bottom of the mine as gifts and led laughing officials in a celebratory football song.
Gomez, 63, who is the oldest miner, had already been diagnosed with silicosis before he was trapped in the mine on August 5.
Gomez "is a bit weak," the medic said.
The ageing miner, who stepped out of the rescue capsule that brought him to the surface wearing a breathing mask to combat chronic breathing difficulties, said his life had been transformed.
One life
"Often something has to happen to you before you stop and think and understand that you only have one life, and then you think what you have to change," he told President Sebastián Piñera, who welcomed him.
The miners are being brought to the surface at a rate of about 40 minutes per round trip. By 23:30 SA time, 25 miners had been brought to the surface.
With remarkable speed and flawless execution, one miner after another climbed into a slender cage deep beneath the Chilean earth, was hoisted through 622m of rock and saw precious sunlight on Wednesday, after the longest underground entrapment in human history.
By mid-afternoon all the weakest and sickest, had been pulled to freedom, and officials said they might even be able to bring everyone to the surface by the end of the night.
Emerged to cheers
After 69 days underground, including two weeks during which they were feared dead, the men emerged to the cheers of exuberant Chileans before the eyes of a transfixed globe.
The men made the smooth ascent inside a capsule called Phoenix, about 4m tall, barely wider than their shoulders and painted in the white, red and blue of the Chilean flag.
It had a door that stuck occasionally, and its wheels needed lubricating at least once, but otherwise it worked exactly as planned.
Piercing the darkness
The rescue was planned with extreme care. The miners were monitored by video on the way up for any sign of panic.
They had oxygen masks, dark glasses to protect their eyes from the unfamiliar sunlight and jerseys for the jarring transition from subterranean swelter to chilly desert air.
As they neared the surface, a camera attached to the top of the capsule showed a brilliant white piercing the darkness, not unlike what accident survivors describe when they have near-death experiences.
The miners emerged looking healthier than many had expected and even clean-shaven. At least one, Mario Sepulveda, the second to taste freedom, bounded out and thrust a fist upward like a prize fighter.
"We have prayed to San Lorenzo, the patron saint of miners, and to many other saints so that my brothers Florencio and Renan would come out of the mine all right. It is as if they had been born again," said Priscila Avalos.
One of her brothers was the first miner rescued, and the other was due out later in the evening.
Psychological issues
The men emerged in good health. But at the hospital in Copiapo, where miner after miner walked from the ambulance to a waiting wheelchair, it became clear that psychological issues would be as important to treat as physical ones.
Dr Guillermo Swett said Sepulveda told him about an internal "fight with the devil" that he had inside the mine. He said Sanchez appeared to be having a hard time adjusting, and seemed depressed.
"He spoke very little and didn't seem to connect," the doctor said.
As trying as their time underground was, the miners now face challenges so bewildering that no amount of coaching can fully prepare them.
Rejoining a world intensely curious about their ordeal, they have been invited to visit presidential palaces, take all-expenses-paid vacations and appear on countless TV shows.
Book and movie deals are pending, along with job offers.
http://www.news24.com/World/News/Chilean-miners-healthier-than-expected-20101013
[Wow! Now this is quite a story that will go a long way in the history of mining]