After becoming ill while on an excursion more than nine days ago and being unable to reach the surface, American cave explorer Mark Dickey was rescued from a deep cave in Turkey.
A stretcher-bound Dickey, 40, was taken from his position at a camp around 3,400 feet below the surface in many phases, ending the days-long rescue mission successfully, according to the European Cave Rescue Association.
When Dickey arrived, he stated, “It is amazing to be above ground again,” and later, “This is overwhelming.”
He left at midnight local time, according to the Speleological Federation of Turkey, and the cave rescue “has ended.”
Mark Dickey was removed from the last exit of the cave at 00:37 and taken to the UMKE tent. Thus, the cave rescue part of the operation has ended successfully. We congratulate all those who have contributed! #MarkDickey #caverescue #Morca #tumaf@AFADBaskanlik
— Türkiye Mağaracılık Federasyonu (@tumaf1) September 11, 2023
Dickey claimed that during his sojourn more than a half-mile below the Earth’s surface, he alternated between being determined to live and being determined to die.
“I won’t pass away. At first, he said, he convinced himself, “This is OK.
Then, he added, “I start vomiting blood, and blood is coming out in greater quantities than you’re going to have to live with if it keeps happening.” Then it became more difficult for me to maintain consciousness, to the point where I said, “I’m not going to live.”
He attributed his survival to his fiancee, the Turkish government, and Hungarian cavers. According to Dickey, his future fiancée hiked over 3,300 feet to gather the required fluids and descended again with the aid of cavers from Turkey and Hungary.
He remarked, “It was the Turkish government’s quick response that got the materials to her. My life was saved.
Later, Dickey published a photo of himself happy on Facebook with the announcement that he was receiving care in an intensive care unit.
It was a terrifying experience, he added, and it was the closest to death he had ever been. I really thank everyone who helped me escape from a cave and who also saved my life.
Andy and Debbie Dickey, Dickey’s parents, expressed their “incredible joy” and gratitude for everyone’s support.
They claimed that everyone engaged in the enormous rescue effort had worked really hard for the event. “Mark is strong, and we believe in his strength, but we completely understood that he needed significant help right away. We are so appreciative that the assistance he needed was provided, and that the first medical rescue team to come was able to find him at the appropriate time.
According to the group, Dickey was medically stable before the operation started and is well-known for his work teaching others how to rescue people from caves.
It was easier to move Dickey toward the surface after some of the cave system was bombed with explosives, said to Recep Alci, the chairman of Turkey’s Disaster & Emergency Management Authority.
He acknowledged that there were “some very tight passages” in an interview on Friday. It’s an extremely difficult rescue effort.
The agony of Dickey began on September 2 at Morca, Turkey’s third-deepest cave, which is located beneath the Taurus Mountains. Dickey claimed that he started experiencing stomach bleeding and was unable to raise himself to the surface.
He was initially transported a few hundred feet higher, to a level of 3,400 feet, where the Turkish Caving Federation has a camp, according to the organization.
He stayed there, waiting for help, for approximately a week. The federation referred to it in a statement as “one of the largest cave rescues in the world.”
Alci claimed that while Dickey awaited his ascent to the surface, he received an unidentified treatment through IV.
Dickey seemed to be “in serious, life-threatening condition” when it first came across him days ago, according to the Hungarian Cave Rescue Service, which assisted in the rescue mission.
His condition seemed to get better over a few days, the rescue agency stated in a statement on Monday.
“We hope Mark will surface later today so he can resume his medical care in the hospital as soon as possible,” the statement read.
According to Carl Heitmeyer, the press representative for the New Jersey First Response Team, of which Dickey is the team commander, Dickey went spelunking with his fiance, who intended to be by his side until the rescue operation started.
Gov. Phil Murphy of New Jersey stated on X, formerly Twitter, on Saturday, “We are grateful to the Turkish military & first responders leading the rescue effort.”
Gretchen Baker, the national coordinator of the National Cave Rescue Commission, where Dickey has been teaching cave rescue courses for ten years, stated that Dickey was helping to organize a late-summer expedition at Morca and intended to map a new pathway.
He was a benefit to the caving community, according to Heitmeyer.
He declared, “Mark is a skilled caveman. There are just a few thousand individuals of his quality on the entire planet.