American rescued after 12 days in Turkish cave

Mark Dickey said it was 'amazing to be above ground again'

(Image credit: Mustafa Unal Uysal/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

published 14 September 2023

An American researcher who fell critically ill while mapping a cave in Turkey was rescued this week, thanks to an international operation involving 200 cavers and medics. Mark Dickey, 40, was around 1km under the surface in the Morca Cave – a twisting network of passages in the Taurus Mountains – when he started to experience gastrointestinal bleeding. He was initially treated in situ by a Hungarian doctor, but as his condition worsened, a rescue effort got under way. By the time he was brought out, he'd been in the cave for 12 days. It is "amazing to be above ground again", he said as he surfaced.

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