I’ve just seen Monday’s episode of Everest ER which I downloaded off iPlayer. It’s a good show and it was great to see the BBC’s film of the place where I’ll be trekking.

(http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00ktb46/Everest_ER_Episode_1/)

The programme follows the doctors at the Base Camp on the southern side of Mount Everest, and how they deal with the injuries and illnesses of the climbers tackling the mountain. They deal with climbers with frost bite and fluid on the lungs,  even swelling of the brain, all without the facilities of a modern hospital.

And this is where I began to worry.

Next they showed a lone volunteer doctor in a small clinic at a village about 4240 metres altitude. She was waiting for a helicopter to collect a patient that she was unable to treat. Apparently, she has to deal with hundreds of trekkers that fall ill on the trek to Everest Base Camp; that could be me!  The narrator (David Tennant “Doctor Who”) went as far as saying even trekking here can be lethal.

Lethal!

Perhaps the show was just exaggerating the dangers to make things seem dramatic, but now I can’t stop thinking about what might happen if things go wrong.

Rosanna

PostScript:

Hi folks,

Just a note to say that since I wrote this I’ve had some reassuring advice from Kirsty at Mountain Kingdoms, and I’ve posted it for everyone to see:

http://www.mountainkingdoms.co.uk/blog/experts-corner-kirsty-on-altitude-sickness-part-1/

Check out what she has to say. It made me feel better.

R