‘I’m up, I’m alert,’ says US cave explorer trapped in Turkey
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MERSIN, Turkey - An American cave explorer trapped more than 1,000m underground in a cave
Mr Mark Dickey, 40, was on an international exploration mission in the Morca cave in Mersin province’s Taurus Mountains when he began suffering from gastrointestinal bleeding at a depth of 1,040m. More than 150 rescuers from Turkey and other nations have been working to save him.
“Hi, I’m Mark Dickey from nearly a thousand metres,” he said in the message, dressed in a red puffer jacket and using a headlamp. “As you can see, I’m up, I’m alert, I’m talking. But I’m not healed on the inside yet, so I’m going to need a lot of help to get out of here.”
Mr Dickey said he was “very close to the edge” when the team reached him with medical and survival supplies. He thanked the Turkish government and rescuers, saying this was “a great opportunity to show how well the international world can work together”.
Footage from the operation showed rescuers setting up shelters in the cavity where Mr Dickey was found and chatting with him. Other teams from Turkey and elsewhere set up camp outside the country’s third-deepest cave.
Mr Tulga Sener, head of the rescue commission medical unit, told Reuters that Mr Dickey’s health condition was stable and his vital signs normal, adding that three doctors would attend to him on his way up.
The rescue operation was divided into seven sections, each given to a team from a different country, because of the complexity of the operation, according to Mr Recep Salci, the head of search and rescue for Turkey’s AFAD disaster management authority.
A rescuer descending to the entrance of Morca Cave on Sept 8 during a rescue operation to reach cave explorer Mark Dickey, who fell ill and became trapped some 1,000m underground.
PHOTO:REUTERS
“Of course, this is not a cave that can be reached on foot,” Mr Salci said. “It takes 12 hours for a caver to get down and 16 hours to climb up,” he said.
The operation to bring Mr Dickey out could take days, with explosives needed to expand some narrow spaces to allow safe passage, he added. REUTERS
