World’s highest clinic battles to save lives
QOMOLANGMA BASE CAMP, Nepal, — As word came over the radio that a Sherpa had been struck on the head by a falling rock high on Qomolangma, known in the West as Mount Everest, the three doctors at base camp jumped into action, aware that saving him would be a life-or-death race against the unpredictable mountain.
Wary of the fading light that would ground the medical helicopter overnight, they administered emergency treatment on the helipad where the chopper brought him in — enough, they hoped, to give him a fighting chance of surviving the 20-30 minute onward flight to a hospital in Lukla, down the valley.
“He was bleeding, so we had to stop that and then get him down,” said Suvash Dawadi, one of three doctors who has spent the last two months at the Everest ER.
The doctors staffing the sole emergency room on the roof of the world battle high altitude, freezing conditions and violent weather every climbing season to save the lives of sick and injured mountaineers.
Medics running the tent clinic at an altitude of 5,364 meters must cope with medicines freezing overnight, winds that threaten to blow the clinic’s tent away and a cardiac monitor that gives up due to the cold.
Countless foreign climbers who have run into trouble on Qomolangma’s unforgiving slopes have been saved from the brink by the rudimentary clinic since it was set up 15 years ago.
But the clinic has served a higher purpose: Providing affordable medical care for Nepali Sherpas, the guides who are the backbone of the lucrative Everest industry.
“Before Everest ER was set up the Sherpas didn’t have any proper coverage,” explained Subarna Adhikari, an orthopedic surgeon.
Risky business
Established by a US doctor and now run by the Nepalbased Himalayan Rescue Association, the clinic charges foreign climbers for treatment and in return provides subsidized care to the Sherpas.
It has helped chip away at the stark imbalance between the foreigners who pay a small fortune to summit Qomolangma and Sherpas who take on much of the risk to get them there.
A Sherpa can earn up to $10,000 — more than 14 times the average annual salary in Nepal — during the brief two-month climbing season that runs from early April to late May.
But that means many ignore medical issues for fear of being forced out of a season’s work.
“For them to lose that job, for them not to complete the season, is disastrous,” said Dawadi.
A routine morning at the clinic was shattered as an injured sherpa was rushed into the clinic — he had fallen 60 meters into a crevice in the treacherous Khumbu icefall.
Doctors quickly assessed him for internal bleeding — a life-threatening injury so far from a fully equipped hospital.
But the Sherpa’s sobs of pain gradually gave way to relief as doctors confirmed no bleeding or broken bones.
A few days’ rest, and would be back at work. he