Rescue teams could start moving American trapped 3,400 feet inside Turkey cave within hours

For five days, expert cave explorer Mark Dickey has been stuck 3,400 feet below the surface in a cave in the Taurus Moutain region of Turkey.

Mr Dickey, 40, is an experienced caver who embarked on an expedition mission to map one of the deepest caves in the world – the Morca cave system in southern Turkey.

But the expedition was suddenly cut short after Mr Dickey fell ill with gastrointestinal bleeding.

Now, a rescue team of over 150 personnel from several international organisations have combined their efforts to try to retrieve Mr Dickey, who cannot leave the cave due to the emergency medical situation.

As of Thursday, officials in the Speleological Federation of Turkey said that Mr Dickey’s situation had improved but that he would require a stretcher, making the rescue mission even more complicated.

The Cave Exploration Society says Morca cave is the 74th deepest cave in the world and the third deepest in Turkey – here’s everything you need to know about Speleology.

Mark Dickey remains 3,600ft underground, but the effort to lift him to the surface is set to begin on Saturday, a director at Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) told CNN on Friday.

Dickey fell ill last weekend with suspected gastrointestinal bleeding during an exploration of the Morca Sinkhole in Morca Valley, near Anamur in southern Turkey.

In an update from the European Cave Rescue Association (ECRA), officials said doctors are working to improve Mark Dickey’s health to the fullest extent possible before they conduct the rescue mission.

“The doctors are working to further improve the patient’s health [sic] so that the difficult transport to the surface can begin soon without further complications,” they wrote in a press release.

Officials said they believe Mr Dickey will need to use a stretcher for some of the rescue mission but the better his condition is the fewer complications there will be.

In a message from Mark Dickey, the expert caver said a rescue mission like the one he will embark on is an opportunity to show the world how international teams can work together.

“As you can see I’m up, I’m alert, I’m talking. But I’m not healed on the inside yet so I’m going to need a lot of help to get out of here,” Mr Dickey said in a video circulated around on Thursday.

Despite the scary situation, Mr Dickey remained hopeful and provided some positive thoughts: “This is often, in the caving world, a great opportunity to show just how well the international world can work together.”

The European Cave Rescue Association said on its website on Friday that the cave had been divided into seven sections, with various rescue teams taking responsibility for each of the levels down the cave. Communication lines inside the cave had also been improved, it said.

“The doctors are working to further improve the patient’s health’s so that the difficult transport to the surface can begin soon without further complications.”

Members of Italy’s National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Team joined rescue teams from Bulgaria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Poland and Turkey late on Thursday.

The Italian organisation said six of their rescuers, including a doctor and nurse, reached Mr Dickey during the night.

The team is switching out the Hungarian doctor who has been tending to Mr Dickey with their own. The team planned to work to keep him stable for 15 to 20 hours before being replaced by another team.

Small camps are being set up at different levels inside the cave gave doctors, nurses and technicians a place to rest, the group said.

Recep Salci, a Turkeish rescue official, told HaberTurk TV that doctors gave Mr Dickey IV fluids and 4 litres of blood inside the cave.

More than 30 rescuers were inside the cave on Friday afternoon, and teams comprised of a doctor and three or four others take turns staying with the American at all times, Mr Salci said.

“Our aim is to bring him out and to have him hospitalized as soon as possible,” he said.More than 170 people, including doctors, paramedics and experienced cavers, are involved in the rescue operation.

A Turkish official has said rescuers are waiting for doctors to give the go-ahead for the difficult operation to begin.

Recep Salci, the head of AFAD’s search and rescue department, told HaberTurk TV that the plan was to lift Dickey on a stretcher but to use a “security belt” system to lift him through the cave’s narrow openings.

“We are trying to expand the narrow areas by making small explosions, by breaking some areas,” Mr Salci said.

Carl Heitmeyer, the public information officer for the New Jersey Initial Response Team described the complexity of the cave system that Mark Dickey is in to New Jersey Patch.

“I compare it to Everest,” Mr Heitmeyer said.

“There’s twists and turns and squeezes,” he said. “There’s climbs both up and down. And then there’s the rope work, where you’re hanging on, climbing up. And then there’s water coming in…some of the times when you’re on rope, doing all that very technical stuff, you’re blinking because of the rain.”