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Rescuers in Turkey are getting ready a posh effort to succeed in an American who has fallen in poor health and has been trapped within the Morca Cave since Saturday, officers mentioned.
As of Tuesday, caver Mark Dickey, 40, was at a campsite round 3,400 ft from the doorway, based on the Turkish Caving Federation, which is helping within the rescue.
The Hungarian Cave Rescue Service mentioned it acquired a name Saturday saying a caver contained in the round 4,100-foot deep cave was struggling gastrointestinal bleeding and wanted assist.
Dickey’s situation is stabilizing, the bleeding has stopped, and he is ready to stroll with help, the federation mentioned in a press release Wednesday, however he wants a stretcher to be faraway from the cave complicated.
“The operation is logistically and technically one of many largest cave rescues on the earth, involving 150 rescuers,” mentioned the caving federation, which is working with Turkey’s authorities.
Turkey’s Catastrophe and Emergency Administration Authority, a part of the Inside Ministry, mentioned it had groups on standby and was working in coordination with the Turkish Caving Federation.
Rescuers had been establishing rope strains Wednesday as a part of the rescue effort.
Dickey is an teacher with the Nationwide Cave Rescue Fee, and he has been for 10 years, mentioned Gretchen Baker, the group’s nationwide coordinator. He was co-leading an expedition to seek out and map a brand new passage within the cave, she mentioned.
He fell in poor health at a depth of round 3,674 ft, the Turkish Caving Federation has mentioned, earlier than being moved to the group’s base camp at round 3,412 ft.
Dickey is being cared for by docs and is along with his fiancée, Jessica, who can also be a caver, his mother and father, Andrew and Deborah Ann Dickey, mentioned in a press release. They declined to be interviewed.
“Mark is powerful, however he wanted his fellow cavers, together with, after all, the docs, to permit a devastatingly scary scenario to show optimistic,” they mentioned.
“Our prayers are being answered and we can not categorical how a lot which means, and can all the time imply, to us,” they added.
Models of blood had been delivered to Dickey this week, based on the Turkish Caving Federation. It mentioned the operation to take away him and the stretcher was anticipated to be complicated and prolonged. Morca Cave is the third-deepest collapse Turkey, it mentioned.
Whereas Dickey’s situation has improved, it may very well be days earlier than he can attain the doorway.
“It’s nonetheless anticipated to take fairly a number of days to get him all the way in which out of the cave, because it’s such a troublesome and technical cave and he’s up to now deep in it proper now,” Baker mentioned in an electronic mail Wednesday night.
It takes round 15 hours for an skilled caver to succeed in the floor in superb circumstances, the Turkish Caving Federation has mentioned.
The Morca Cave is in southern Turkey within the Taurus Mountains.
The Nationwide Cave Rescue Fee mentioned on Fb early Thursday ET that a number of rescue groups are working.
“Extra cave rescue groups are arriving, and they’re dividing the cave up into sections. Totally different groups are serving to to rig these sections,” the group mentioned.
CORRECTION (Sept. 6, 2023, 10:30 p.m. ET): A earlier model of this text misspelled the caver’s identify. He’s Mark Dickey, not Marc.
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