<div style="text-align: justify; "><span style="font-size: 1rem;">A US citizen trapped in Turkey's third deepest cave for more than a week has been pulled to safety, rescuers say.</span><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">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.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Organisers say it was one of the largest and most complicated underground rescues ever mounted.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">The lowest point of the Morca Cave, in a remote part of the south, reaches nearly 1.3km (0.8 miles) below ground.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Dickey was brought out of the cave at 00:37 local time (21:37 GMT), the Turkish Caving Federation announced on social media.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">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.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Dickey said he thought he would not survive the ordeal after his condition worsened.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"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.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"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'.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"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.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Dickey's parents Debbie and Andy Dickey said the "international caving community" had "made it possible for Mark to leave Morca cave and receive further medical treatment at a hospital facility".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">They said their son's rescue was "indescribably relieving" and filled them with "incredible joy".</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Mark is strong and we believe in his strength, but fully knew that he was in dire need of tremendous and immediate support," they said.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Our prayers have been, and are, being answered and it is hard to express the magnitude of thanks we have for the international caving community."</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Dickey had been co-leading a team to map a new passage in the cave when he began to suffer from gastrointestinal bleeding.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">His condition improved after he was given a blood transfusion. He was then strapped to a stretcher and was slowly carried out.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">This involved navigating through tight rock tunnels and explosives had to be used at the narrowest points, according to CBS, the BBC's US partner.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">A number of rescue workers from several other countries, including Croatia and Hungary, flew to Turkey to assist in the rescue.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Mr Dickey's fiancee, Jessica Van Ord, also helped. She had remained in the cave with him while he was unwell but later climbed out.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify;">On Thursday evening, in a video message from inside the cave, Mr Dickey thanked the people attempting to rescue him. BBC</div><div style="text-align: justify;"><br></div><div style="text-align: justify; ">bnbd24/kh</div>