Tuesday, October 22

The operation might begin quickly to rescue a sick American researcher 3,000 ft right into a Turkish cave

ANTALYA, Turkey (AP) — An American researcher who fell sick nearly 1,000 meters (greater than 3,000 ft) beneath the doorway of a collapse Turkey, has recovered sufficiently sufficient to be extracted in an operation that might final three or 4 days, a Turkish official was quoted as saying on Friday.

Mark Dickey, a 40-year-old skilled caver, grew to become all of the sudden sick with abdomen bleeding throughout an expedition with a handful of others within the Morca collapse southern Turkey’s Taurus Mountains. Rescuers from throughout Europe have rushed to the cave for an operation to avoid wasting him, together with a Hungarian physician, who reached and handled him.

“The doctors we sent down were very successful in treating him,” Cenk Yildiz, a regional official from Turkey’s catastrophe reduction company, informed the IHA information company. “We are now in a position to evacuate him.”



“This is a difficult operation. It would take a (healthy) person 16 hours to come out. This operation will last at least three or four days,” Yildiz continued. “Our precedence is well being. Our purpose is to conclude this operation with out anybody coming underneath any hazard.

Late on Thursday, members of Italy’s National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Team, together with a minimum of a health care provider and a nurse, joined rescue groups from Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Turkey. A Turkish helicopter was on standby close to the doorway of the cave, Turkish media stories stated.

Dickey was seen standing and shifting round in a video message from contained in the cave that was made out there by Turkish authorities on Thursday. He stated whereas he’s alert and speaking, he’s not “healed on the inside” and can want quite a lot of assist to get out of the cave.

In the message, he additionally thanked the caving neighborhood and the Turkish authorities for his or her efforts.

“The caving world is a really tight-knit group and it’s amazing to see how many people have responded on the surface,” stated Dickey. “ … I do know that the quick response of the Turkish government to get the medical supplies that I need, in my opinion, saved my life. I was very close to the edge.”

The New Jersey-based cave rescue group that Dickey is affiliated with stated he had been bleeding and shedding fluid from his abdomen, however he has now stopped vomiting and has eaten for the primary time in days. It was not clear what brought about the medical problem.

Doctors have been anticipated to resolve whether or not he might want to depart the cave on a stretcher or if he can depart underneath his personal energy. The New Jersey Initial Response Team stated the rescue would require many groups and fixed medical care contained in the cave, which can also be fairly chilly.

The cave was being ready for Dickey’s protected extraction, together with passages being widened and the hazard of falling rocks being addressed, based on the Hungarian Cave Rescue Service and different officers.

Dickey was described by the affiliation as “a highly trained caver and a cave rescuer himself” who’s nicely referred to as a cave researcher, or speleologist, from his participation in lots of worldwide expeditions. He is secretary of the affiliation’s medical committee.

The researcher was on an expedition mapping the 1,276-meter (4,186-foot) deep Morca cave system for the Anatolian Speleology Group Association when he bumped into bother about 1,000 meters down, based on Yusuf Ogrenecek of the Speleological Federation of Turkey. He initially grew to become sick on Sept. 2, however it took till the morning of Sept. 3 to inform others who have been above floor.

More than 170 individuals, together with docs, paramedics and skilled cavers, are concerned within the rescue operation.

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Suzan Fraser in Ankara, Turkey; Robert Badendieck in Istanbul; Mike Catalini in Trenton, New Jersey; Darko Bandic in Zagreb, Croatia; Justin Spike in Budapest, Hungary; Aritz Parra in Madrid; Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland; Patricia Thomas in Rome; and Rhonda Shafner in New York contributed to this report.

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