None of the miners suffered from the decompression sickness, and they were transferred either by helicopter (flying at low altitudes) or by ambulance to hospitals. However, as the drill shaft had gone through an aquifer, then in their final exits the miners had been drenched in yet another torrent of cold water. Extremities were purple and mottled from immersion, and trauma surgeon Dr. Russell Dumire stated, "They were freezing cold...It looked like if you rubbed real hard against their feet, you could rub the skin right off." The lowest body temperature among the miners was about degrees, the warmest at , versus normal body temperature of .