Rescuers on Saturday began what is expected to be a long effort to evacuate a New York cave explorer who fell ill more than 3,000 feet underground.
An international team of more than 170 rescuers has set up an elaborate medical delivery system in Turkey’s third-deepest cave to help speleologist Mark Dickey, 40. But it could still take a week or more to bring him to the surface, depending on how sick he is. he is.
“This evening, the operation to move him from his camp at 1040 meters to the camp at 700 meters began,” said Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate, AFAD.
Dickey, of Croton-on-Hudson, New York, fell ill with gastrointestinal bleeding on September 2 while on a mapping expedition at the Morca cave in the Taurus Mountains of southern Turkey.
“When we get permission from the medical team, we will start the evacuation,” said Recep Salci, who heads the search and rescue department at Turkey’s disaster relief agency, AFAD.
Tulga Sener, a doctor and rescue medical coordinator, said the team had set up small “medical tents” throughout the cave and had set up a “mini-lab” to monitor Dickey’s condition as he was taken out of the cave.
Rescuers begin the extraction of ill speleologist Mark Dickey from a cave in Turkey. TURKEY DIRECTION COMMUNICATION/AFP via Getty Images
Dickey fell ill last week while on a Morca cave mapping expedition. Reuters
Rescuers predicted that Dickey would have to stop and rest repeatedly as he made his way out of the cave, one of the factors that played into the prediction that it could be a week or more before he reaches the surface.
“This is a difficult operation,” said Cenk Yildiz, a regional official from Turkey’s disaster relief agency, ABC News reported. “It would take a (healthy) person 16 hours to get out.”
How long it takes depends on Dickey’s condition and strength. The biggest question is whether he will be able to leave the cave on his own two feet, need help from others or if he will need to be carried on a stretcher, according to Salci.
“If he comes on a stretcher, it can last 10 days,” Salci said. “If he is helped, then we plan to bring him in four or five days.”
Dickey was vomiting, bleeding and losing fluid from his stomach.
Rescuers had previously said they hoped to begin evacuating Dickey from the cave on Saturday or Sunday. via REUTERS
Doctors gave the sick researcher IV fluids and at least four liters of blood, officials said.
A rotating team of one doctor and three or four others monitored Dickey.
He has stopped vomiting and is also eating food, according to the New Jersey-based cave rescue group he is affiliated with.
On Thursday, the Turkish government shared a video showing Dickey standing and moving inside the cave.
Aircraft for several European rescue teams to extract Dickey.AP
“The cave world is a very close-knit group and it’s amazing to see how many people have responded on the surface,” Dickey said in the video.
The European Cave Rescue Association, which described Dickey as a “trained caver and cave rescuer himself,” said Saturday that his health condition was stable, but doctors wanted to check his blood values before starting the extraction.
The association said Friday that the cave had been divided into seven floors for Dickey’s evacuation, with a different rescue team responsible for each section. Communications inside the cave have also been improved ahead of the extraction effort, the group said.
Rescue teams from all over Europe helped Dickey. Reuters
Dickey, a veteran instructor with the National Cave Rescue Commission, was co-leading a mapping expedition to find new routes in the 4,186-foot-deep Morca cave system for the Anatolian Speleological Group Association when he fell ill at a depth of about 3,674. legs.
Dickey thanked the Turkish government for its “quick response” to send him medical supplies, which “saved” his life.
“I was very close to the edge,” he said.
With Postal wire
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
