American explorer trapped in Turkey cave now halfway to escape as rescue continues – latest

Mark Dickey’s partner and fellow caver Jessica Van Ord was with him when he began suffering gastrointestinal bleeding more than 1,000m below ground in the Morca cave complex on 2 September, according to Reuters.

Ms Van Ord remained by Mr Dickey’s side as an Italian rescue team with medical personnel reached the 40-year-old New Yorker and gave him IV fluids and blood inside the cave.

She has been staying at a base camp near the mouth of the cave, and working with the 150-strong team of cavers who have travelled to Turkey to help bring Mr Dickey out by stretcher.

More than 150 rescuers from Turkey and across the globe have been pressed into action to save 40-year-old Mark Dickey from the country’s third-deepest cave.

“Our medical team is working really hard to try to keep Mark’s condition as stable as possible. Since yesterday [Saturday], we started lifting the stretcher and transporting him through the cave,” Giuseppe Conti, European Cave Rescue Association technical commission chairperson, told reporters.

“We have to do it very carefully because we cannot risk any conditions worsening (for) Mark. So we must pay attention metre after metre. Currently, the stretcher is about … 500 metres from the surface.”

Rescue teams in Turkey had successfully carried American researcher Mark Dickey to a depth of 500m, or roughly halfway to the surface, by Sunday afternoon.

“Mark is now at -500 meters as of 19:08, local time (GMT +3). Half of the rescue distance is over,” the Speleogical Federation of Turkey posted in an update on Sunday.

Mark Dickey, 40, is an experienced caver who embarked on an expedition mission to map one of the deepest caves in the world – the Morca cave system in southern Turkey.

His resume of cave explorations and expert status is endless: secretary of the ECRA medical committee, lead instructor for Caving Academy, a US-based organisation that prepares other cavers for exploration and a national instructor for the National Cave Rescue Commission.

He also volunteers with the New Jersey Initial Response Team, a nonprofit search-and-rescue team.

In simple terms, a Speleologist studies all aspects of caves including their geology, biology, hydrology, and history, according to Start Caving.com.

Speleologists often research how the cave is formed and how It changes – this is known as speleogenesis and speleomorphology.

“Speleology is an interdisciplinary field that combines a lot of scientific skills,” Start Caving says.

The Independent’s Faiza Saqib has more.

Mark Dickey’s partner and fellow caver Jessica Van Ord was with him when he began suffering gastrointestinal bleeding more than 1,000m below ground in the Morca cave complex on 2 September, according to Reuters.

Ms Van Ord remained by Mr Dickey’s side as an Italian rescue team with medical personnel reached the 40-year-old New Yorker and gave him IV fluids and blood inside the cave.

She has been staying at a base camp near the mouth of the cave, and working with the 150-strong team of cavers who have travelled to Turkey to help bring Mr Dickey out by stretcher.

Rescue teams in Turkey have successfully carried American researcher Mark Dickey up from the depth of a cave at 3,410 feet (1,040m) halfway to the surface.

“Mark is now at -500 meters as of 19:08, local time (GMT +3). Half of the rescue distance is over,” the Speleogical Federation of Turkey posted in an update on Sunday.

“Our medical team is working really hard to try to keep Mark’s condition as stable as possible,” European Cave Rescue Association official Giuseppe Conti said on Sunday.

A rescue effort is underway to bring stranded US researcher Mark Dickey to safety from one of the deepest caves in Turkey.

Here are a few of the dramatic images to emerge from the early stages of the mission.

An operation to rescue Mark Dickey has brought the American researcher up to a depth of 2,300-feet (700m) below the ground.

A team consisting of doctors, paramedics and experienced cavers began to bring Mr Dickey back to the surface after he fell ill in the Turkish cave began on Saturday afternoon.

“Mark was delivered to the campsite at -700 meters as of 03:24 local time (GMT+3). At this stage, he will set out again after resting and having the necessary treatments,” the Speleological Federation of Turkey wrote on its official account on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The rescue team set off on the next leg of the mission to bring Mr Dickey to 500m below ground level on Sunday morning.