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For nearly 29 hours Motueka doctor Michael Brewer's broken body was hauled through tight squeezes, hoisted up pulley systems and pushed through small passages as he was inched to freedom.
As his stretcher banged against the cave's tight walls, he endured the pain of a broken pelvis and bruised ribs, which dug into him as the team took him out of the stretcher and pulled him on his side through anothertight gap.
"There were a couple of times I had to get out of the stretcher and get hauled through narrow bits.
"If a particularly bad section was coming up I could be filled up with more pain relief. There was a particularly bad section when they were trying to squeeze me through one bit and I wouldn't fit, and they pulled me out and turned me over and tried to squeeze me through another bit, and in between I had fallen asleep."
Dr Brewer said he had envisaged "every single damn squeeze and awkward bit that I had to get through to get out" before the mammoth effort, which cost $100,000.
The 47-year-old was yesterday recovering in Nelson Hospital after a more than 63-hour ordeal underground and a rescue that saw about 50 rescuers help move him through the intricate system to the surface.
He praised his rescuers for being "amazingly tolerant" as he issued directions and instructions from his stretcher along the way.
He was knocked out by a collapsing rock on Saturday evening, 3km into the Green Link/Middle Earth caving system in Takaka Hill. He awoke in the lap of his caving companion, wrapped in an emergency blanket and unable to walk.
"My life was very enjoyable and the next thing I remember was trying to figure out where I was and what was happening and why I was lying in the lap of [my] caving companion and ... why my head hurt," he said.
"As soon as I tried to walk, it was too sore to walk, and if you can't walk, you can't get out. I know that system very well, and I could imagine most of the moves and a lot that weren't going to be easy, especially in a stretcher.
"When we first started there was a rock fall to get through which would take an able person five minutes, and it took us three hours. I just couldn't believe it had taken so long."
But his concerns diminished asthe rescue teams arrived at the cave.
"When everyone started getting there ... and the fact they had come in the first place, their enthusiasm and positivism was magnificent."
It took nearly 29 hours for the team to move him from where the accident happened to the top of the cave; most of that distance took only eight hours to cover, while the winding passages were far more challenging.
He emerged from the cave entrance early yesterday morning to the sight of his wife, Sarah, and daughters Anna, 15, and Alex, 13.
"That was probably my most memorable memory ... having my two daughters there and Sarah at that time in the morning ... I don't think I'm a particularly emotional person, but as emotional moments go, it was pretty emotional."
With his injuries and having had only slept four hours in three days, Dr Brewer still had the enthusiasm to front a media scrum yesterday.
"I have an overwhelming feeling really of gratitude towards all these people, my life depended on it really. I wasn't going to get out unless 40 or 50 people were prepared to give up their time to come and rescue me."
Dr Brewer hopes to make a full recovery from his injuries in a few weeks, and remains open about caving again.
"It's too painful to walk at the moment, too painful to roll over. I'm working on rolling over."
