The wife of the only survivor of the Sago Mine disaster left her husband's bedside at Allegheny General Hospital yesterday afternoon to purchase a CD and a boom box.

Alyssa Cwanger, Post-Gazette Anna McCloy, wife of surviving miner Randal McCloy, talks at a news conference yesterday evening at Allegheny General Hospital on the North Side. At right is West Virginia's first lady, Gayle Manchin. Click photo for larger image.

Anna McCloy, a country and western music fan with little interest in "hard metal," decided to indulge her husband Randal's penchant for head-banging music: She chose "Metallica" by Metallica.

While Mr. McCloy, 26, remained in a medically induced coma, she told the press corps, his favorite thrasher tunes would be playing on the stereo, perhaps even leaking into the staid hallways of the hospital. He was transferred to AGH Thursday to take advantage of the trauma center's hyperbaric oxygen chamber, which doctors hope will prevent brain damage and speed his recovery.

"He was strong enough to pull through 41 hours in a mine. He's strong enough to pull through this," Ms. McCloy, 25, said.

Twelve men on Mr. McCloy's work crew, men he considered "family," were not so lucky. Ms. McCloy said she would not be surprised to learn, as friends and family have begun to speculate, that his fellow miners sacrificed some of their oxygen supply to save him when they were trapped underground together following an explosion Monday.

"I figure they thought of Randy as one of their sons and wanted to take care of him," she said. She said she has been preoccupied with Mr. McCloy's condition, but plans to talk with some of the victims' family members soon.

Looking rosy cheeked and well rested, Ms. McCloy sat beside West Virginia first lady Gayle Manchin, who has accompanied her throughout most of the ordeal. The stay-at-home mother from Simpson, a town with a population of about 100, appeared unruffled as she fielded questions from a couple dozen reporters from around the country who were scribbling down her every word.

She said Mr. McCloy likes hunting with a bow; he likes angling for catfish. He is a certified electrician, and just a week ago they talked about him enrolling in some courses because he didn't care for the mining job.

The couple share a strong faith in God. Every morning when Mr. McCloy left for work, she walked him to the door. "That's when he'd tell me that he loved me and the kids, kiss me and before he'd go out the door he'd say, 'God loves you and he loves me, too,' " she said.

Ms. McCloy said she met her husband in first grade and began dating him at 13. They will celebrate their fifth wedding anniversary in June.

Their 14-month-old daughter, Isabel Hope, does not really grasp what has happened to him or why he is in the hospital. "She hollered, 'Dad! Dad! Dad!' when she [saw] him," she said.

Ms. McCloy said she told the girl and her brother Randal McCloy III, 4, that "their daddy had worked very long hours and he was tired and needed rest." She placed a photograph of the children on a teddy bear in his hospital room.

She and a dozen other family members made the trip to Pittsburgh, where Mr. McCloy is receiving treatment for carbon monoxide poisoning and organ damage. Along with his wife, his parents, in-laws, siblings, nieces and nephews have been holding Mr. McCloy's hand and talking to him. The two children were being cared for by an aunt back home.

Ms. McCloy also set out her husband's toiletries so there will be familiar smells in the room.

In a briefing earlier in the day, Ms. Manchin said, "I think Anna is holding up remarkably well." Doctors both in Morgantown and Pittsburgh had been very communicative, which has helped Mrs. McCloy, she added.

"I just sit with her and hold her hand," Ms. Manchin said, and see that she gets what she needs. When asked if Mrs. McCloy was eager to have her husband transferred back to West Virginia, Ms. Manchin replied, "She's eager for him to get better."

Dr. Richard Shannon, chairman of medicine at AGH, told reporters that Mr. McCloy's family has played an important role in the treatment process.

"Whether they think he's listening or touching them, this is enormously therapeutic," Dr. Shannon said. "Care is not just antibiotics. Care is being surrounded by loved ones."

In addition to the comforting words of loved ones, Ms. McCloy said that if her husband can hear at all, Metallica is definitely "something he'll want to listen to." He is also a Hank Williams Jr. fan, she said.

If Mr. McCloy opens his eyes, she said, she won't be able to give him a hug yet because the hospital equipment will be in the way. She intends to tell him that she loves him. But, more likely, she said, "I'll probably be speechless."