22,000 feet is a pretty long ways up a mountain; that’s more than 4 miles high. There aren’t many mountains that you can even climb that high, but if you were going to guess one, you would probably say, “Everest.” Good answer, as Everest still reigns as the tallest mountain (above sea level) on earth. It has 100 other smaller siblings in the Himalayas that are over 20,000 feet, but Everest is still the Grandaddy of ‘em all.
So, if you want the greatest high the planet has to offer, Mt. Everest is your target. 700-1,000 climbers attempt to scale its lofty heights every year, and about 600-700 of those make it to the summit. Unfortunately, a dozen or so of those climbers die each year, some of them due to heart attacks. (I’m feeling woozy just thinking about it!)
David Sullivan is an avid mountain climber and the founder of Code Blue CPR, an organization that trains people in defibrillator use and CPR skills around the world. Sullivan combined two of his passions by placing a defibrillator at the Everest Base Camp — altitude 16,500 feet — after climbing to 22,000 feet to test the device and make sure it would work. Health experts say that the use of a defibrillator within the first 3 minutes of a heart attack can improve survival rates from 8% to over 50%.
Sullivan’s efforts paid off earlier this year when he learned that a 30-year old French woman had been revived with his defibrillator after her heart stopped on Everest. “It was the proudest moment of my life when I learned what had happened,” Sullivan was quoted as saying. “It was a sherpa who told me the defibrillator had been activated and had saved a 30-year-old French woman’s life. I hope it will help people realize how important it is to have access to defibrillators.”
Sherpas are an ethnic group who live in the high mountain regions of the Himalayas, particularly in Nepal and the surrounding areas. They are known for their physical prowess at high altitudes and are often employed as porters and guides for climbing expeditions, especially on Mount Everest. The term "Sherpa" is also used more broadly to refer to local people employed as guides or porters on mountaineering expeditions in the Himalayas. (thanks Google AI)
Sullivan began his advocacy work after he lost four close friends—all under the age of 45— to cardiac arrest, and while he was in Nepal, he also gave multiple CPR and defibrillator classes to the locals who had never had access to training before. “I performed nine minutes of CPR for a young lad and used a defibrillator just three months after I had been shown how to. While I was doing this, around 30 people just watched and didn’t help because they didn’t know how. When that lad’s mum called me the next day to say he was alive, it changed my life forever.”
Well, I reckon so! Learning the basics of CPR is a good and joyous thing that we can all do. In America, The Red Cross is probably the most prevalent provider of the training. You can find a class near you at this link: RED CROSS.Internationally, there is the International CPR Institute, here.
Way to go, David. Your efforts at placing the world’s highest cardiac defibrillator certainly did not go wasted. Stay happy and healthy, everybody!
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