- A rescue operation to save an ailing American researcher from a cave in Turkey has begun.
- Mark Dickey, 40, started vomiting while exploring a deep Turkish cave a week ago.
Rescuers are working to save a US scientist who has been stranded in a cave in Turkey for a week, The Associated Press reports.
Mark Dickey fell ill while he was 3,280 feet below the entrance of the Morca cave in southern Turkey. The 40-year-old caver was on a research mission when he began vomiting because of stomach bleeding.
The rescue operation includes 190 personnel from eight countries, including paramedics, experienced cavers, and doctors, Mersin Gov. Ali Hamza Pehlivan told the media. Of the 190, 153 are search and rescue experts.
Rescuers will pull Dickey to the surface through the narrow passages on a stretcher. The rescue effort could take days, and workers anticipate Dickey will have to take breaks and rest at makeshift camps along the way, per AP.
Federico Catania, the spokesman for Italy's National Alpine and Speleological Rescue, said, "The cave is made up of many vertical shafts, so many sections that are extremely vertical with few horizontal sections where rescuers are setting up temporary camps," AP reports.
Yusuf Ogrenecek of the Speleological Federation of Turkey says that one of the most challenging aspects of cave rescues is widening the narrow passages to make way for stretchers at low depths, AP reports.
"Stretcher lines are labor intensive and require experienced cave rescuers working long hours," Ogrenecek said. He added that other obstacles would include the psychological toll of staying in the cave for a long period and navigating through mud and water at low temperatures.
Dickey is a speleologist, a person who studies caves, and a cave rescuer
The cave is located deep in Turkey's Taurus Mountains. The Turkish Caving Federation has said that in ideal conditions, an experienced caver can reach the surface in about 15 hours, per The Telegraph.
However, Recep Salci, head of AFAD's search and rescue department, told AP that it could take up to 10 days to bring Dickey back to the surface, depending on his condition.
"We have received information that his condition is getting better thanks to medical intervention. He has been in stable condition as of yesterday," said Gov. Pehlivan.
Doctors have been assisting Dickey in the past few days, giving him IV fluids and four liters of blood, AP reports. Teams of a doctor with three or four other personnel have been taking turns always accompanying Dickey.
A video released by Turkish authorities shows Dickey standing and moving about on Thursday. Dickey, who has been suffering from gastrointestinal bleeding, said he was not "healed on the inside" and needed a lot of help to reach the cave's surface, AP reports.
According to a GoFundMe set up for the rescue teams, Dickey is a speleologist, a person who studies caves, and a cave rescuer.
"He has participated in caving expeditions in many karst areas of the world for many years," according to the fundraising page. "In addition to his activities as a speleologist, he is also the secretary of the ECRA medical committee and an instructor for cave rescue organizations in the USA."