A cave diver was left trapped upside down in a minuscule passageway, making a horrifying sound as he tragically lost his life.

John Edward Jones, 26, a medical student and seasoned spelunker (a hobbyist cave explorer), went cave diving with a group of friends while visiting family in Utah for Thanksgiving in 2009. On 24 November, the group ventured into the Nutty Putty Cave, a popular spelunking spot renowned for its tight twists, turns and crawls.

John decided to try and locate the formation known as the Birth Canal, an incredibly narrow vertical passage. The father-of-one's fatal error was ending up in an unmapped area called Ed's Push and descending into a dead-end passageway.

He squeezed his way in head first, inching forward using his hips, stomach and fingers. However, within minutes he realised he was stuck, with no room to turn around or even retreat.

His only option was to continue moving forward, exhaling the air from his chest so he could fit through the "L-shaped pinpoint" which was just 10 inches across and 18 inches high. John's brother Josh was the first to find him, attempting to pull at his calves but to no avail, reports the Mirror.

In a terrifying turn of events, John then slid even further down into the passage, becoming trapped with his arms pinned under his chest.

Josh had no alternative but to abandon his brother and navigate his way out of the cave, where he summoned help.

Cave explorer and YouTuber Brandon Kowallis was called upon to assist in the rescue operation and was the final person to see John alive.

The day following their unsuccessful efforts, he penned a comprehensive account of their distressing attempts.

He revealed John "had started talking about seeing angels and demons around him".

Brandon wrote: "John's feet were about 6 feet past the constriction and I was able to shift myself to the side of him and down the 4 foot wide fissure. After stabilizing myself by jamming my body into a narrower section of the crack I began speaking to John asking him how he was and introducing myself.

"There was no response. I shifted my position a little and tapped him on the leg. I could hear him breathing a deep gurgling breath, as though his lungs were filling with fluid. Then his feet shifted as though he were trying to maneuver his legs out of the crack he was jammed in. The kicking looked fairly frantic and after a second he stopped and it looked as though he had drifted into unconsciousness. I continued tapping him on the legs and hip to see if I could get a response, but there was no response."

The only option was to manoeuvre John into a horizontal position, but this would involve navigating through the most challenging section of the passage where he was stuck. Even if he were conscious and at full strength, there would have been a "minute chance" of success.

A radio was brought to John's family, and his mother, father and wife all expressed their love for him and said they were praying for him.

As rescuers frantically tried to extricate John from the cave, he exhaled "gurgling breaths" and kicked wildly in a superhuman effort to free himself. Brandon attempted to use his jack hammer to chip away at the rock, but it kept sinking into the sand at the sides.

He checked John's temperature later that evening, which was close to the temperature of the rocks on the cave walls.

Brandon added: "From there I removed his shoe and attempted to check his temperature. The thermometer read nothing, which the paramedic said was because the temperature was below the range. As I took his shoes off and moved his feet I noticed that his feet and legs were significantly stiffer than they had been earlier and it was difficult to his leg more than a few inches."

A paramedic managed to get close enough to declare him dead from a heart attack. The entrance to Nutty Putty Cave was subsequently boarded up and declared a public health hazard.

Roughly a week later, concrete was poured into the main opening of the cave, sealing John inside for eternity. He left behind his wife Emily and their baby daughter Lizzie.

Emily was also pregnant with their second child at the time, a son who was born the following year and named after his father.