The lone survivor of a coal mine explosion that killed a dozen other miners began a series of oxygen treatments expected to last at least three days at a Pittsburgh hospital, officials said. Randal McCloy Jr., who was in a coma -- and, according to a doctor, appeared to have suffered brain damage -- was taken by ambulance Thursday from West Virginia University's Ruby Memorial Hospital to Allegheny General Hospital. "Mr. McCloy is in stable condition but remains critically ill as a result of the carbon monoxide poisoning that he suffered," said Dr. Richard Shannon, who is leading the team of doctors treating the miner. "There's no panic," Shannon said. "There is certainly a sense of concern. He's in critical condition." McCloy will receive two 90-minute treatments a day over the next three days or possibly longer to remove any remaining amount of carbon monoxide from his body "and, in doing so, to hopefully limit any injury and hasten his recovery," Shannon said. "We are doing this because we want to leave no stone unturned," he said Thursday night, adding that McCloy had been sedated and was undergoing his first treatment. He said it was too early for a prognosis. Earlier, Dr. Lawrence Roberts, director of the West Virginia University's trauma center, said there had been some small improvement in McCloy's responsiveness but he remained in critical condition. He warned that there would not be a miraculous recovery in the hyperbaric chamber, in which patients breathe oxygen to remove carbon monoxide from their blood. "We don't expect to put him in the chamber and have him open his eyes and start talking to us," Roberts said. McCloy, 26, of Simpson, was rescued early Wednesday after being trapped in the Sago Mine near Tallmansville for more than 42 hours. Twelve other miners died. Dr. John Prescott said at the WVU hospital that McCloy was struggling with the effects of oxygen deprivation to his vital organs, including his brain, and remained in a coma. "We do believe there has been some injury at this point to the brain," Prescott said. 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 Simpson, a small town about 35 miles southeast of Morgantown, W.Va. 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. "When most people are drinking pop, he's drinking milk and juice. He's in good shape. That had to have helped him," said McGee, who has known McCloy for 12 years. McGee says McCloy likes to pass the time walking in the woods looking for deer. "He is a typical guy -- liked hunting, fishing, sports, fast cars," McGee said. Ben Hatfield, president and CEO of International Coal Group, which owns the mine, guessed that McCloy may have been deeper in a barricaded area that he and 11 other miners created after the explosion early Monday, and therefore farther from toxic gases. The 13th miner died in another location. McCloy's wife, Anna, looking pale and exhausted, attended a news conference at the hospital Wednesday but did not answer questions. "Just ask everybody to keep on praying," she said. ------ Associated Press writer Vicki Smith in Morgantown, W.Va., contributed to this report.

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