There are silent heroes on Mount Everest who are often forgotten. Like the Icefall Doctors, responsible for the route through the dangerous Khumbu Glacier. The rope-fixing team of Nepalese climbers who secure the route to the summit. The numerous Climbing Sherpas, without whose help most of the clients of the commercial expeditions would never reach the highest point at 8,849 meters. And then there are the rescue teams: the helicopter pilots who fly up to altitudes of 7,000 meters to bring climbers down to the valley on a long rescue line.
And the medical staff in the Everest ER at the base camp. ER stands for Emergency Room. An emergency room at 5,364 meters, where sick or injured mountaineers have been treated during the spring season since 2003. The infirmary at Everest Base Camp is organized and financed by the Himalayan Rescue Organization Nepal, a non-governmental organization founded more than 50 years ago.
The intensive care physician and anaesthetist Ashish Lohani is one of three doctors – alongside his Nepalese compatriot Suraz Shrestha and the South African Roy Harris, who lives in Scotland – who have been working in the Everest ER this spring season. All three are proven experts in high-altitude medicine. Since the beginning of April, Lohani and Co. have already treated more than 550 patients in their arched tent.
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