Two weeks in a cave, bleeding: an American was rescued from an underground trap from a kilometer depth

Mark Dickey found himself in trouble in one of the caves in Turkey.

Photo: REUTERS

And the old woman gets into trouble. This is how one can characterize the incident that occurred with Mark Dickey – professional speleologist, cave rescue instructor and head teacher the whole academy of speleology. Despite vast experience and high-profile titles, the man found himself in trouble in one of the caves in Turkey.

As he writes “New York Times”40-year-old Dickey participated in an expedition whose purpose was to explore Morka caves in southern Turkey. This is one of the deepest caves in the country, which consists of steep vertical shafts and many deep holes. Everything was going fine until two weeks ago when the American suddenly began bleeding in his abdomen. Unable to call for rescuers from underground due to a lack of radio contact, one of his colleagues made the arduous, hours-long climb to the surface to call for help.

Realizing that the speleologist would not be able to get out on his own, the authorities began a rescue operation to rescue Dickie. More than 180 people from eight countries joined it. Volunteers set up camp near the entrance to the cave.

The scale of the rescue operation is amazing; helicopters, explosives and special equipment were involved. “This is one of the most complex cave rescue operations in the world,” said a spokesman for Turkey’s Emergency and Disaster Management Authority. Recep Salci.

Given the inaccessibility of the entrance to the cave, food, water, medicine and blood for transfusion had to be delivered by helicopters, and then lowered into the depths manually or using winches. To coordinate between rescuers, a telephone line was even installed in the cave, and Croatian specialists installed a wireless text messaging system.

Meanwhile, the victim of the emergency languished at a depth of more than a kilometer at a temperature of 4 degrees and high humidity.

The doctors who arrived first to Dickey began administering blood transfusions, thanks to which they managed to stabilize the victim’s condition and prevent his death. Meanwhile, sappers were blowing up narrow passages to make it possible to pull out the man. The situation was very difficult, because even for an experienced speleologist, the path from the place where the American was to the exit would have taken 15 hours, and here it was necessary to evacuate a sick person who could not move.

However, the rescuers were still able to pull out Dicks to the surface. Moreover, they pulled him out, securing his body with tourniquets on a stretcher. Now the American is awaiting rehabilitation and a medical examination to understand what happened to him at depth.