A US citizen trapped in Turkey's third deepest cave for more than a week has been pulled to safety, rescuers say.

More than 150 people were involved in efforts to save caver Mark Dickey after he developed stomach problems in the Morca Cave on 2 September.

Organisers say it was one of the largest and most complicated underground rescues ever mounted.

The lowest point of the Morca Cave, in a remote part of the south, reaches nearly 1.3km (0.8 miles) below ground.

Mr Dickey was brought out of the cave at 00:37 local time (21:37 GMT), the Turkish Caving Federation announced on social media.

Carl Heitmeyer of the New Jersey Initial Response Team, a group Mr Dickey leads, confirmed for BBC News that the caver had been rescued and he expressed his thanks to all those involved in the operation.

 

Mr Dickey said he thought he would not survive the ordeal after his condition worsened.

"The only feeling that I think I have is this curve of 'Will I live?' It literally went through my head, I was like 'This is a bell curve'. Like seriously, I'm insane that way," he told reporters.

"It's like 'This isn't that serious, I'm not going to die', this is 'ok, like I've got some blood going on here but it's bacterial, it's an infection, whatever'.

"Then I start throwing up blood and blood is coming out in more quantity that you're going to live with if it keeps happening… I kept throwing up blood. Then my consciousness started to get harder to hold on to and I reached a point where I said, 'I'm not going to live'," he added.

 

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Yesterday on Al Jazeera they were saying at least a week to bring him up. Kudos to those that got him out so quickly.

No mention of what was wrong with him beyond 'throwing up blood'.

Ulcer, cancer, liver failure?

 

Edited September 12, 20232 yr by BritManToo

Glad he’s out wonder what’s wrong with him and his prognosis