One of the most complex cave rescues of all time was just completed a few days ago, in which our colleague from the Department of Manufacturing Science and Engineering at BME, Dr. Peter Zentay also took part. The rescue of the caver who fell ill at a depth of 1,040 meters was completed successfully.
Rescues from deep caves are especially dangerous and their outcome is doubtful, they are fortunately very rare. An American cave explorer fell ill at a depth of more than 1 km in the Morca cave in the Toros Mountains in southern Turkiye. His very serious condition prevented him from reaching the surface by his own strength (or with the help of his companions). Any assistance from such difficult places can only be expected from rescue teams specialized in cave environments. Therefore, an international alert was launched among European cave rescue organizations for the rescue of the caver.
The medical emergency team of the Hungarian Cave Rescue Service arrived at the scene first and started medical treatment of the patient, saving his life and stabilizing his condition. As long as his condition was not stable, the transport of the patient to the surface was out of the question.
Meanwhile, further 20 members of the Hungarian Cave Rescue Service and other rescue organizations were on alert, so that they could be launched to the rescue if it were deemed necessary. Within a few days, the entire stretcher transport team was assembled and, thanks to continuous medical care and treatments, the patient was in a condition to be transported. This was the time that the transport of the patient from a depth of 1,040 m could be started. After 58.5 hours of tiring work, the stretcher with the patient safely reached the surface, where it was handed over to the Turkish national rescue team (UMKE).
The Hungarian Cave Rescue Service, that was founded in 1961, took a major part in the rescue and proved that it is one of the best cave rescue services in the world.
We are proud that, as a member of the team, our colleague Péter Zentay also participated in the rescue inside the cave, who will report in more detail about the details of the action and his experiences in a later presentation.
We heartily congratulate him and all colleagues of the rescue team!
The photo shows a snapshot of the transport of the patient on the stretcher deep in the Morca cave and the members of the Hungarian Cave Rescue Service (from left to right): Ferenc Kulcsár, Zoltán Tegzes, Peter Zentay, and the back of Kilián Huber (Photo: Magyar Cave Rescue Service, made by B.Á.).