'Miracle Miner' Moved For Treatment

(CBS/AP)  The lone survivor of a coal mine explosion that killed 12 other miners has been moved to a Pittsburgh hospital to undergo oxygen treatment, West Virginia University hospital officials said Thursday.

Randal McCloy Jr., 26, of Simpson, West Virginia, remained in critical condition and was transferred to Allegheny General Hospital, said Bill Case, a spokesman for WVU's Ruby Memorial Hospital.

McCloy was rescued early Wednesday after being trapped in the Sago Mine near Tallmansville for more than 42 hours. Twelve other miners died. He remained in critical condition Thursday.

"Mr. McCloy's organ systems have responded fairly well to the treatment he has received over the last 36 hours," said Dr. Larry Roberts, director of the Jon Michael Moore Trauma Center at Ruby Memorial. "His left lung is no longer collapsed. But we have not seen the neurological improvement we would like to see."

Doctors decided to transfer McCloy to Pittsburgh for hyperbaric oxygen treatment. McCloy's family agreed to the transfer Thursday afternoon.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy can be used in the treatment of brain injuries. It helps get oxygen to the body's tissues and can help increase blood cells to fight infections or promote healing of injuries.

Allegheny's dual-chamber hyperbaric unit — the only type that can accommodate a patient with a breathing tube — is the closest one to Morgantown, which is 75 miles south of Pittsburgh, WVU said in a news release.

McCloy has been struggling with the effects of oxygen deprivation to his vital organs, including his brain, and remains in a coma, Dr. John Prescott said Thursday. Prescott said McCloy's coma is not medically induced and that drugs initially used to sedate him are wearing off.

"We do believe there has been some injury at this point to the brain," Prescott said. "The fact that he is not waking up as we had hoped he would do, that would be the reason why."

McCloy however somehow managed to respond to his wife, through facial expressions and squeezing her hand, reports CBS News correspondent Randall Pinkston.

That gives his family hope.

"As a mother, I'm just — you know, I'm waiting for them to have him to the point where he's not medicated and I can see him acting like himself and I can be able to determine in my own mind how he is," said McCloy's mother, Tambra Flint.

Relatives called McCloy a quiet family man who would likely cringe at his status as the "miracle miner." They said he did not like working in the mines but stuck it out for three years because it enabled him to provide for his wife and two children, 4-year-old Randal III and 1-year-old Isabel.

"I know he was fighting to stay alive for his family because his family was his No. 1 priority," said Rick McGee, McCloy's brother-in-law and a fellow miner who lives next door to McCloy in the small town of Simpson about 35 miles southeast of Morgantown.

He was the youngest of the 13 miners. Most of the others were in their 50s, and doctors said his youth and health may have helped him survive.