ISTANBUL (AP) – Turkish and international cave rescue experts worked to reach an American researcher who got trapped inside a cave in southern Turkiye at a depth of more than 1,000 metres (m) after he became ill yesterday.
Mark Dickey, 40, was in Morca cave in southern Turkiye’s Taurus Mountains when he experienced gastrointestinal bleeding, according to the European Cave Rescue Association.
He was unable to leave the cave on his own, the association said on its website.
It described Dickey as a highly trained caver and a cave rescuer himself who is well known as a cave researcher, or speleologist, from his participation in many international expeditions.
He is secretary of the association’s medical committee. Dickey was on an expedition mapping the 1,276m deep Morca cave system for the Anatolian Speleology Group Association when he was about 1,000m down, according to Yusuf Ogrenecek of the Speleological Federation
of Turkiye.
Ogrenecek told The Associated Press later that Dickey’s condition had stabilised and was improving. He said the American was in good spirits and doctors would decide if Dickey leaves the cave on a stretcher or under his own power.
Turkish disaster relief agency and National Medical Rescue Team are working with Turkish and international cavers on a plan to hoist Dickey out of the cave system, the rescue association said yesterday.
The rescue effort involved more than 170 people, including doctors, paramedics who are tending to Dickey and experienced cavers, Ogrenecek said, adding that the rescue operation could take up to two to three weeks.
