I don't think so, towards the end the diver stated:

> If need be, we were to give them another shot of ketamine in case they were waking up.

being on ketamine while trapped in a cave would be ammmmaaaaazzziinnngg (ly terrifying)

On the way down from some ketamine I fell asleep in my VR headset while virtually inside someone else's room (high Res photogrammetry), that was spooky - took me a while to work out why I couldn't see my arms.

There's a difference between a k-hole and being sedated..

Yea this sounded pretty strange to me,

Im aware sedation slows breathing down, so some oxygen can be saved if human attached to tank is not hyperventilating for hours,

Pretty crazy the kids were sedated and hands bound and feet tied!

The divers said why, they had previously rescued two adults from that cave in a much easier tunnel, but the adults panicked underwater and ripped their masks off. The people you're saving can easily kill you too if they hit your mask.

Yeah just in Open Water rescue course you learn that people will panic and reject all their gear, including the regulator that could keep them alive, and will start to rip your gear off and try to take you with them.

One of those things that you have to consider, particularly if you don't know the person that you're trying to rescue is at what point you're basically going to wind up fighting back and possibly intentionally drown the other person so that you survive. If the person is on the surface of the water and you have working scuba gear this can be as simple though as just descending and they'll stop trying to kill you. I've thought about the problem if you're in a cave and someone is nearly OOA and panicking and what would have to happen, but that's unlikely enough of a situation that hopefully I'll never have to worry about it.

Its real obvious to me why the kids were strapped down and pumped full of happy drugs.

If I remember correctly, in my diver training we were instructed if someone was in need of saving to grab them from the back by the hair and drag them behind you to safety. That way there is minimal chance of the person freaking out and dealing you any damage.

Grab them by the tank valve on their back and hook your knees around their tank and ride them like a bucking bronco. You still need to be ready to get away from them if they don't calm down. And that assumes you're able to get behind them in the first place.

From wikipedia:

«The effect of ketamine on the respiratory and circulatory systems is different from that of other anesthetics. It suppresses breathing much less than most other available anesthetics.[29] When used at anesthetic doses, ketamine usually stimulates rather than depresses the circulatory system.»

Probably the last thing you would want is an untrained kid to panic during the rescue. They would most likely kill both themselves and their rescuers in the process.

Yes especially during cavediving, it's difficult enough for an experienced diver, and panicking / flailing individuals can drown would-be rescuers in pools.

The purpose of the ketamine vs other analgesics is you don't need to intubate or monitor respiratory system nearly as much as you do for say, propofol.