Rescue Effort Underway For Sick Croton Speleologist In Turkish Cave

An international caving expert and instructor from Croton-on-Hudson who fell deathly ill while leading an exploration of a deep cave in southern Turkey a week ago has been stabilized by medical personnel and evacuation efforts have begun.

Mark Dickey was on an expedition when he "suddenly became ill" Aug. 31 with gastrointestinal bleeding and vomiting, and his conditions rapidly worsened, according to the New Jersey Initial Response Team, where Dickey serves as chief.

The 40-year-old was 1,040 meters (3,412 feet) under the ground in a complex cave system, said the NJ-IRT. The expansive cave, located in the Taurus Mountain belt, is the third-deepest in the country.

"The doctors we sent down were very successful in treating him," Cenk Yildiz, a regional official from Turkey’s disaster relief agency, AFAD, told the news media, euronews.com reported. "We are now in a position to evacuate him."

That will take several days, the Independent reported.

Dickey was able to send a video message to the surface that was shared by Turkey's communications directorate, the Independent reported.

In the video, Dickey thanked everyone. "I was very close to the edge," he said. "I'm going to need an awful lot of help to get out of here.

"The caving world is a really tight-knit group and it's amazing to see how many people have responded."

Dickey "is a well-known figure in the international speleological community, a highly trained caver, and a cave rescuer himself," officials of the European Cave Rescue Association wrote in a fundraising appeal. "He has participated in caving expeditions in many karst areas of the world for many years. In addition to his activities as a speleologist, he is also the secretary of the ECRA medical committee and an instructor for cave rescue organizations in the USA."

A GoFundMe page started in Croton to assist the international rescue teams has raised $51,059 of a $100,000 goal.