Rescue of American explorer trapped in Turkey cave has begun, officials say

Rescue has begun of ailing US researcher stuck 3,000 feet inside a Turkish cave, Turkish disaster management agency says.
Rescue teams began the arduous process Saturday of extricating Mark Dickey, who became seriously ill while he was exploring the Morca cave in the south of Turkey last Saturday 3 September.
However, it could take days to bring Mr Dickey, 40, to the surface since rescuers anticipate he will have to stop and rest frequently at camps set up along the way as they pull his stretcher through the narrow passages.
“This afternoon, the operation to move him from his camp at 1,040 meters to the camp at 700 meters began,” the official from the Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate told The Associated Press, adding that the operation could last 10 days.
The 40-year-old experienced caver began vomiting because of stomach bleeding while on an expedition with a handful of others in the Morca cave in southern Turkey’s Taurus Mountains.
Teams of rescuers from across Europe have rushed to Mr Dickey’s aid.
A Hungarian doctor reached and treated him inside the cave on 3 September, as doctors and rescuers have since been taking turns caring for him.
In a statement, the European Cave Rescue Association said he suffered gastrointestinal bleeding, rendering Mr Dickey unable to leave the narrow cave on his own.
“The injured caver is a well-known figure in the international speleological community, a highly trained caver, and a cave rescuer himself,” the ECRA said in its first update, adding that an “international rescue effort is on the way”.
Since then, more than 180 people from eight countries have joined the efforts to help Mr Dickey out of a cave in Turkey, according to a report by The New York Times.
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While Mr Dickey’s condition has been “steadily improving” over the last week, as medical personnel delivered blood transfusions and started treating the well-known speleologist, officials had earlier said he might still need to be extracted on a stretcher.
Ahead of the rescue operation beginning on Saturday evening, the newspaperalso reported that rescuers are using explosives to widen parts of the extremely narrow cave so that a stretcher can fit through these passages.
It typically takes a person in good health around 15 hours to exit.
The parents of Mark Dickey have said “our prayers are being answered” as the rescue operation gets underway.
In a statement obtained by Mail Online, Andrew and Deborah Ann Dickey said: “We are extremely grateful to the international caving community volunteers who have demonstrated such support for our son.
“Mark is strong, but he needed his fellow cavers, including, of course, doctors to allow a devastatingly scary situation to turn positive,” their statement read.
They also said they are “thankful” Mr Dickey’s fiancee and fellow caver, Jessica “has been with him during this ordeal”.
“Our prayers are being answered and we cannot express how much that means, and will always mean to us.”