Mersin, Turkey:

A US explorer trapped for more than a week deep in a Turkish cave with internal bleeding could be pulled to safety as early as Monday night, rescuers said.

Mark Dickey, 40, developed stomach problems on September 2 while exploring the depths of the Morca Cave, a remote complex of narrow underground tunnels in southern Turkey’s Taurus Mountains.

The Morca Cave is Turkey’s third-deepest, according to the county’s caving federation. Its lowest point is 1.3 kilometres (0.8 miles) below ground.

Mark Dickey fell ill at a depth of 1,120 metres (695 feet), sparking what organisers said was one of the largest and most complicated underground rescue operations ever mounted.

An international team of rescuers, fellow explorers and medics is now trying to bring Dickey to a base camp 180 metres below the surface.

He has been strapped to a stretcher, which sometimes needed to be lifted vertically by a rope through particularly narrow passageways.

“The rescue operation will continue from minus 180 metres after Mark has rested at the camp here for a while,” the Turkish Caving Federation said.

“If everything goes well, the aim is to rescue Mark completely by tonight or tomorrow.”

Officials said Dickey’s health was improving thanks to emergency treatment by medics who raced to reach him underground.

“He is in good health in general. He continues to be fed with liquids,” Cenk Yildiz, the head of the local branch of Turkey’s emergency response service, told reporters late on Sunday.

“We have resolved his stomach bleeding issues with plasma and serum support.”

In a video recorded on Wednesday, Dickey thanked the Turkish government for its help.

“The quick response of the Turkish government to get the medical supplies that I needed, in my opinion, saved my life,” Dickey said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

A medical team takes care of American caver Mark Dickey, center, 40, inside the Morca cave near Anamur, southern Turkey, on September 09, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

Rescue teams on September 10 in Turkey successfully carried an American researcher up from the depth of a cave at 1,040m to the 700-metre mark where he will rest at a base camp before they continue the taxing journey to the surface.

An experienced caver, Mark Dickey, 40, started vomiting on September 2 because of stomach bleeding while on an expedition with a handful of others in the Morca cave in southern Turkey’s Taurus Mountains, one of the deepest in the world, according to experts.

A rescue operation began September 9 afternoon with doctors, paramedics and experienced cavers from across Europe rushing to help. They set up small medical base camps at various levels along the shaft, providing Mr. Dickey an opportunity to rest during the slow and arduous extrication.

“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.

Turkish authorities said there are 190 personnel from eight countries taking part in the operation, 153 of them search and rescue experts.

The most challenging part of the rescue operation is widening the narrow cave passages to allow stretcher lines to pass through at low depths, Yusuf Ogrenecek of the speleological federation previously said.

The extraction is expected to take up to 10 days depending on his condition.