Father of Diving Doctor Who Helped Boys Dies After Mission

Shortly after the joy of all 12 boys and their coach being rescued from a flooded cave in Thailand, personal tragedy struck the Australian doctor who helped the boys when his father died. Dr. Richard Harris was on holiday in Thailand when the boys got trapped in the cave and volunteered to help; he entered the cave to assess the boys' conditions and ended up staying with them for three days, directing rescuers to lead the weakest boys out first. Harris, an experienced cave diver, is believed to have been one of the final rescuers to leave the cave, the BBC reports. But shortly after he did so, his father died. "This is clearly a time of grief for the Harris family, magnified by the physical and emotional demands of being part of this week’s highly complex and ultimately successful rescue operation," Harris' boss says in a statement, per the New York Post. (More Thailand stories.)