Rescuers on Saturday began what is expected to be a lengthy effort to evacuate a New York cave researcher who fell ill more than 3,000 feet underground.
An international team of more than 170 rescuers has set up a complicated medical relay system in Turkey’s third deepest cave to help 40-year-old caver Mark Dickey. But it could still take a week or more to surface, depending on how sick he is. he is.
“This afternoon the operation to transfer him from his camp at 1,040 meters to the camp at 700 meters began,” Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate, AFAD, said.
Dickey, of Croton-on-Hudson, New York, fell ill with gastrointestinal bleeding on September 2 while on a mapping expedition in Morca Cave in the Taurus Mountains of southern Turkey.
“The moment we get the go-ahead from the medical team, we will begin the evacuation,” said Recep Salci, who heads the search and rescue department of the Turkish disaster relief agency, AFAD.
Tulga Sener, a doctor and medical coordinator for the rescue, said teams set up small “medical camps” along the cave shaft and set up a “mini laboratory” to monitor Dickey’s condition as they carry him out of the cave.
Rescuers have begun extracting sick caver Mark Dickey from a cave in Turkey. TURKISH DIRECTION OF COMMUNICATI/AFP via Getty Images
Dickey fell ill last week while on a mapping expedition of Morca Cave. REUTERS
Rescuers predicted that Dickey will need to stop and rest repeatedly as he exits the cave, one of the factors influencing predictions that it could take a week or more before he reaches the surface.
“This is a difficult operation,” said Cenk Yildiz, a regional official for Turkey’s disaster relief agency, ABC News reported. “It would take a (healthy) person 16 hours to get out.”
How long it actually takes will depend on Dickey’s condition and his strength. The biggest question is whether he will be able to get out of the cave on his own, will he need help from others or will he have to be carried out on a stretcher, according to Salci.
“If he comes on a stretcher, it could last 10 days,” Salci said. “If he gets help, we plan to do it in four or five days.”
Dickey had been vomiting, bleeding and leaking fluid from his stomach.
Rescuers previously said they hoped to begin evacuating Dickey from the cave on Saturday or Sunday.via REUTERS
Doctors have given the sick researcher intravenous fluids and at least four liters of blood, authorities said.
Rotating teams consisting of a doctor and three or four other people have been monitoring Dickey.
He has since stopped vomiting and even managed to eat, according to a New Jersey-based cave rescue group he is affiliated with.
On Thursday, the Turkish government shared a video showing Dickey standing and moving in the cave.
The plane of several European rescue teams to extract Dickey.AP
“The caving world is a tight-knit group and it’s amazing to see how many people have responded to the surface,” Dickey said in the video.
The European Cave Rescue Association, which described Dickey as a “highly trained speleologist and cave rescuer,” said Saturday that his medical condition was stable, but that doctors want to check his blood values before beginning the extraction.
The association said Friday that the cave had been divided into seven levels for Dickey’s evacuation, with different rescue teams handling each section. Communication in the cave was also reinforced before the extraction effort, the group said.
Rescuers from all over Europe have collaborated to help Dickey. REUTERS
Dickey, a veteran instructor with the National Cave Rescue Commission, was co-leading a mapping expedition to find a new passage in the 4,186-foot-deep Morca cave system for the Anatolian Caving Group Association when he fell ill. at a depth of about 3,674 feet.
Dickey thanked the Turkish government for its “quick response” in sending him medical supplies, which “saved” his life.
“I was very close to the limit,” he said.
With post cables
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Source: vtt.edu.vn