Jose Manuel de la Maza
After 69 days underground, all 33 rescued miners could be discharged from hospital by Sunday, following just two or three days of medical observation. All of them reportedly came through the ordeal in relatively good health and those who had to be treated for eye or respiratory conditions have responded well. From his hospital bed, the shift foreman of the team, Luis Urzua, also gave his first interview since being freed. Among other things, he discussed how decisions were made more than 2,000 feet beneath the surface. "Everything was voted on,” he said. “We were 33 men, so 16 plus one was a majority.” One thing that never came to a vote, however, was the possibility of cannibalism. “At that moment no one talked about it,” another miner said. “But once [help came] it became a topic of joking, but only once it was over, once they found us.”