What could go wrong?

But the 50-year-old Chilean miner, nicknamed Dr House after using his first aid training to treat medical problems among the men, hoped that his homecoming might reunite them. All of them.

In his letter of request as to who should greet him when he was pulled from the mine he asked that both his wife and his mistress be present.

His sister, Lidia Barrios Rojas, told The Daily Telegraph: “He asked them both to go up to the mine to meet him when he came out. He says quite simply that he loves them both, that they are both important to him and he wants them to be friends with each other.”