Tina Magnergård Bjers/TT
The researcher Mark Dickey, who fell ill in a Turkish cave a little over a kilometer underground, is 300 meters closer to the surface. The journey, where he was carried on a stretcher, took ten hours.
It is estimated to take days before he can see the light of day – if the difficult rescue operation is successful.
The American speleologist Mark Dickey fell ill when he was more than 1,100 meters underground. A rescue operation is underway to get him out of the cave. After being carried on a stretcher for ten hours on Saturday, he came 300 meters closer to the surface – but the rescue is feared to take several more days, AFP reports.
He is now at a depth of 700 meters on a “horizontal but narrow passage” where he can rest before continuing the journey upwards, writes the Turkish Caving Society on X, formerly Twitter.
But it took a day or so before the message reached the others, further up in the cave.
Dickey suffered severe stomach problems, including bleeding, just over a week ago, on September 2. But it took a day or so before the message reached the others, further up in the cave.
He himself says that quick assistance from the others in the group and the efforts of the Turkish authorities, who ensured that medicines could be taken down, saved his life.
The rescue operation is difficult. The temperature in the cave is only 4-6 plus degrees and there are narrow passages along the way up that are described as difficult, perhaps impossible, to get through with a stretcher. Around 170 people from a number of countries are participating in the rescue operation.
The expedition in Morcagrottan aims to map the cave, which has a depth of nearly 1,300 meters.