15 October 2010 Last updated at 18:47 ET

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by Enrique Krause for the BBC's Biodun Iginla

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Dr Paola Neumann, Health Director of the Atacama Region, said the miners were sent home under high security to protect their privacy

A further 28 rescued miners have been discharged from hospital in Chile in secret, a health official has said.

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Chile's Trapped Miners

• As it happened
• Graphics: Guide to rescue
• The winners
• A 69-day shift from hell

Paola Neumann, head of regional health, said their release was not publicised in order to protect them and their families.

Just two of the 33 men who were freed in an operation that was viewed around the world remained in hospital, she told reporters.

They would be transferred to different hospitals, she added.

Dr Neumann said one was suffering from a dental infection and the other had vertigo.

She described vertigo as like a dizziness that made it difficult for the patient to maintain balance and walk properly.

Anger

The first three of the miners were allowed home late on Thursday, and Dr Neumann said a decision had been taken to discharge the others on Friday without telling the media.

"This is not necessarily because of the media. Please don't take it personally," she told reporters.

The 33 miners spent 69 days trapped deep underground after a cave-in at the San Jose mine, near Copiapo in northern Chile's Atacama region.

For 17 days no one knew if they still lived, until a probe lowered through a narrow bore hole made contact with them.

They had survived by eking out rations meant to last only a few days.

Supplies were then lowered to them while they waited for a rescue shaft to be drilled to them, 624m (2,047ft) below ground.

The first three miners released from hospital late on Thursday, Edison Pena, Juan Illanes and Bolivian Carlos Mamani, returned home to rapturous welcomes from relatives and neighbours.

Mr Pena has expressed his anger about the accident, saying that when they were trapped he thought they were going to die.

"Why do these things have to happen? Because the employer wants to make money," Mr Pena said.

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Chile's Trapped Miners

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Posted by biginla at 12:07 AM BST

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by Enrique Krause for the BBC's Biodun Iginla

Chile's president has said his country will never be the same again after the extraordinary rescue of the 33 miners trapped deep underground for 69 days.

Sebastian Pinera said he thought Chile was "more united and stronger than ever", and "more valued" worldwide.

There were earlier ecstatic scenes as Luis Urzua, 54, the last miner out, emerged at the top of the rescue shaft.

The 22-hour operation saw each man being winched up in a narrow capsule. They have now been taken to hospital.

Some have severe dental infections, and others have eye problems as a result of living in the dirt and darkness of the mine. One has been diagnosed with pneumonia but his condition is not thought to be serious.

Health Minister Jaime Manalich nevertheless stressed that all appeared to be in far better condition than expected.

President Pinera was waiting at the head of the 624m (2,047ft) rescue shaft at 2155 on Wednesday (0055 GMT on Thursday), when the capsule carrying Mr Urzua emerged to jubilant cheers, songs and applause.

The shift supervisor at the San Jose mine, credited with helping the miners endure the early days of their ordeal, embraced the president and said: "We have done what the entire world was waiting for."

"We had strength, we had spirit, we wanted to fight, we wanted to fight for our families, and that was the greatest thing."

Mr Pinera replied: "You are not the same, and the country is not the same after this. You were an inspiration. Go hug your wife and your daughter."

He then led the crowd in singing the Chilean national anthem. Watching the rescue on a big screen nearby, the miners' friends and relatives were showered with champagne and confetti.

Six rescuers who were lowered into the mine to supervise the operation held up a banner saying "Mission accomplished."

<div class="warning"> <img class="holding" src="http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/49497000/jpg/_49497019_jex_836900_de27-1.jpg" alt="Chilian President Pinera" /> <p><strong>Please turn on JavaScript.</strong> Media requires JavaScript to play.</p> </div>

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President Pinera praises the miners, the families and the rescuers.

The last of them, Manuel Gonzalez - who was also the first rescuer to go down the shaft - returned to the surface just under two-and-a-half hours later. Before leaving the underground chamber, he turned to a video camera, bowed and waved in triumph.

In a televised address to the nation at the mine entrance, Mr Pinera said: "When the last miner exited the depths of the mine, I was moved as every Chilean was."

"I want to thank Chilean men and women... who always had words of relief, gestures and smiles. We felt supported by all Chileans, and I want to say that today Chile is not the same country we had 69 days ago."

"The miners are not the same people who got trapped on... 5 August. They have come out stronger, and they taught us a lesson. But Chile is not the same either."

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Order of rescue

Florencio Avalos (31), Mario Sepulveda (39), Juan Illanes (51), Carlos Mamani (23), Jimmy Sanchez (19), Osman Araya (30), Jose Ojeda (46), Claudio Yanez (34), Mario Gomez (63), Alex Vega (31), Jorge Galleguillos (56), Edison Pena (34), Carlos Barrios (27), Victor Zamora (33), Victor Segovia (48), Daniel Herrera (27), Omar Reygadas (56), Esteban Rojas (44), Pablo Rojas (45), Dario Segovia (48), Yonni Barrios (50), Samuel Avalos (43), Carlos Bugueno (27), Jose Henriquez (54), Renan Avalos (29), Claudio Acuna, (35), Franklin Lobos (53), Richard Villarroel (27), Juan Aguilar (49), Raul Bustos (40), Pedro Cortez (24), Ariel Ticona (29), Luis Urzua (54)

• Profiles: Trapped miners
• Key moments: Chile miners' rescue

"I think Chile today is more united and stronger than ever, and I think Chile today is more respected and more valued in the whole world.

"What ended up as a real blessing from God started as a possible tragedy. But the unity, the faith, the compromise, the honesty, the solidarity of the Chileans in those 69 days makes us very proud," he added.

The rescue operation began shortly after 2315 on Tuesday (0215 GMT on Wednesday) with Mr Gonzalez being lowered down the 624m (2,047ft) shaft.

Mr Gonzalez was supposed to return to the surface and report on the condition of the rescue shaft, before handing over to a paramedic. However, the miner Florencio Avalos instead got into the capsule and was hauled up.

The miners wore a "bio-harness" designed for astronauts - which monitors their heart rate, breathing, temperature and oxygen consumption - and sunglasses to protect his eyes from the glare of the desert.

Mr Avalos reached the surface at 0010 on Wednesday (0310 GMT) and was greeted by his family, rescuers, President Pinera and the first lady, Cecilia Morel. Bystanders cheered and clapped, and then started chanting "Chile".

Following their reunions with relatives, the miners were flown by helicopter to hospital in the nearby city of Copiapo. Outside, barriers have been set up to cope with the crowds of onlookers and journalists.

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Posted by biginla at 6:08 AM BST

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AP/Hugo Infante, Chilean government

Miner Alex Vega after being rescued. More photos »

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AP – Miner Alex Vega Salazar, center left, kisses his wife Jessica Salgado after emerging from the capsule …

• Slideshow:Chile Mine Rescue Efforts
• Play Video Video:Chilean miners surface after ordeal Reuters
• Play Video Video:Second Rescued Chilean Miner Speaks ABC News

SAN JOSE MINE, Chile – One by one, the miners trapped for 69 days in a dungeon that could have been their tomb climbed into a rescue capsule and made a smooth ascent to the surface Wednesday, greeted by the embraces of loved ones, cheered by joyous Chileans and watched by a captivated world.

The anxiety that had accompanied the careful final days of preparation broke at 12:11 a.m., when the stoutest of the men, Florencio Avalos, emerged from the missile-like chamber and smiled broadly after his half-mile journey to fresh air.

By late morning, 14 men had been pulled from the mine in roughly 11 hours, including the oldest and youngest among the trapped. The effort was methodical and free of any significant problems, and on track to finish before sunrise Thursday.

Amid an explosion of cheers, Avalos hugged his sobbing 7-year-old son and wife and then President Sebastian Pinera, who has been deeply involved in an effort that had become a matter of national pride.

Avalos was followed an hour later by the most ebullient of the group, Mario Sepulveda, whose shouts were heard even before the capsule peeked above the surface. He hugged his wife, handed out souvenir rocks from the mine to laughing rescuers, bounded out and thrust a fist upward like a prizefighter.

"I think I had extraordinary luck. I was with God and with the devil. And I reached out for God," Sepulveda said as he awaited the air force helicopter ride to a nearby hospital where all the miners were to spend 48 hours under medical observation.

No one in recorded history has survived as long trapped underground as the 33 men. For the first 17 days after 700,000 tons of rock collapsed around them Aug. 5, no one even knew whether they were alive. In the weeks that followed, the world was transfixed by their endurance and unity.

As it traveled down and up, down and up, the capsule was not rotating as much inside the 2,041-foot escape shaft as officials expected, allowing for faster trips, Health Minister Jaime Manalich said. The rescues came as quickly as 36 minutes apart.

Manalich told a news conference after eight miners were rescued that all of them were in good health, and none has required any special medication, not even the diabetic among them.

Chile exploded in joy and relief at the first, breakthrough rescue just after midnight in the coastal Atacama desert.

In the capital, Santiago, a cacophony of car horns sounded. In the nearby regional capital of Copiapo, from which 24 of the miners hail, the mayor canceled school so parents and children could "watch the rescue in the warmth of the home."

All-news channels from North America to Europe and the Middle East carried live coverage. Pope Benedict XVI said in Spanish that he "continues with hope to entrust to God's goodness" the fate of the men. Iran's state English-language Press TV followed events live until President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad touched down in Lebanon on his first state visit there.

The images beamed worldwide were extraordinary: Grainy footage from beneath the earth showed each miner climbing into the 13-foot-tall capsule, then disappearing upward through an opening. Then a camera showed the pod steadily rising through the dark, smooth-walled tunnel.

After the fifth miner made his ascent — 19-year-old Jimmy Sanchez, the youngest and the father of a months-old baby — the rescuers paused to lubricate the spring-loaded wheels that gave the capsule a smooth ride through the shaft, then resumed the rescues.

The ninth, Mario Gomez, who at 63 is the oldest miner, dropped to his knees after he emerged, bowed his head in prayer and clutched the Chilean flag. His wife, Lilianette Ramirez, pulled him up from the ground and embraced him.

Gomez is most experienced of the group, first entering a mine shaft to labor at age 12, and suffers from silicosis, a lung disease common to miners. He has been on antibiotics and bronchial inflammation medicine. Manalich said Gomez came up with a special oxygen mask.

The lone foreigner among the miners, Carlos Mamani of Bolivia, was visited at a nearby clinic by Pinera and Bolivian President Evo Morales. The miner could be heard telling the Chilean president how nice it was to breathe fresh air and see the stars.

The entire rescue operation was meticulously choreographed, with no expense spared in bringing in topflight drillers and equipment — and boring three separate holes into the copper and gold mine.

Mining is Chile's lifeblood, providing 40 percent of state earnings, and Pinera put his mining minister and the operations chief of state-owned Codelco, the country's biggest company, in charge of the rescue.

It went so well that its managers abandoned what a legion of journalists had deemed an ultraconservative plan for restricting images of the rescue. A huge Chilean flag that was to obscure the hole from view was moved aside so the hundreds of cameras perched on a hill above could record images that state TV also fed live.

That included the surreal moment when the capsule dropped for the first time into the chamber, where the bare-chested miners, most stripped down to shorts because of the subterranean swelter, mobbed the rescuer who emerged to serve as their guide to freedom.

"This rescue operation has been so marvelous, so clean, so emotional that there was no reason not to allow the eyes of the world — which have been watching this operation so closely — to see it," a beaming Pinera told a news conference after Avalos was brought to the surface.

Avalos, the 31-year-old second-in-command of the miners, was chosen to be first out because he was in the best condition. When the capsule came out of the manhole-sized opening, Avalos stepped out as bystanders cheered, clapped and broke into a chant of the country's name — "Chi! Chi! Chi! Le! Le! Le!"

The next three men out, including Mamani of Bolivia, followed because they were deemed the fittest of body and mind. The 10 to follow included miners with health problems such as hypertension, diabetes and skin ulcers.

The operation started just before midnight, when a Codelco rescuer made the sign of the cross and was lowered to the trapped men. A navy paramedic went down after Avalos came up — a surprise improvisation as officials had said the two would go down to oversee the miners' ascent before the first went up.

The last miner was slated to be shift foreman Luis Urzua, whose leadership was credited with helping the men endure the first two and a half weeks without outside contact. The men made 48 hours' worth of rations last before rescuers reached them with a narrow bore hole to send down more food.

Janette Marin, sister-in-law of miner Dario Segovia, said the order of rescue didn't matter.

"This won't be a success unless they all get out," she said.

Chilean officials played down the risks of the rescue.

Panic attacks during the ascent, they said, were the biggest concern. The miners were not sedated — they needed to be alert in case something went awry. Manalich said rescuers could accelerate the capsule to its maximum speed of 3 meters per second if necessary.

Rescue coordinator Andre Sougarett told The Associated Press beforehand that the worst technical problem would be the possibility that "a rock could fall" and jam the capsule in the shaft.

Posted by biginla at 4:14 PM BST

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