Ken Kamler: Medical miracle on Everest

About this talk

When the worst disaster in the history of Mount Everest climbs occurred, Ken Kamler was the only doctor on the mountain. At TEDMED, he shares the incredible story of the climbers' battle against extreme conditions and uses brain imaging technology to map the medical miracle of one man who survived roughly 36 hours buried in the snow.

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Summary:

This video’s title is ‘’Ken Kamler: Medical miracle on Everest’’. It‘s about an unbelievable case that can be used to prove the existence of ‘’will power’’ in humans. Ken Kamler talks about the accident which can be one of the worst disasters ever happened in the Everest. When this accident befalls the climbers, Ken was the only doctor on the mountain. There were 4 camps upon the way to the summit. When the teams of climbers arrived at the  fourth camp, they saw the wind blowing very strongly on the peak of the mountain so they decided to wait and consider current situations. Later that night, the wind slowed down and some climber determined to climb to the summit. Unfortunately, while they are climbing, the wind started to flow powerfully again. The disaster began and the team of climbers were stuck at the height of over 18000 feet. At that time, Ken and remaining climbers were still at the third camp and bad news was continuously reported from the radio. Doug Hansen, a exhausted climber, could not come down and other climber- Rob Hall decided to stay with Doug. Moreover, another climber- Beck Weathers had fallen and died. The others were also in panic and really bad health conditions. People from third camp came to rescue those calamity climbers but it was very hard for them to save Doug and Rob. Therefore, people asked Rob Hall to leave Doug and came down alone since it was hopeless to save Doug. However, Rob replied ‘’ We’re both listening’’ and wanted to stay. Hours later, Rob reported back that Doug had been dead and he was too weak to come down now. He asked to talk with his wife, who was seventh month pregnant in New Zealand. They talked for the last time and picked the name for the baby. Three days later, while Ken Kamler were treating the survival climbers, Beck Weathers suddenly came into the tent and asked to be treated. It was extremely surprising as Beck had been reported dead. After that, he told about what’d happened at the summit that he had laid motionlessly in the snow for almost 2 days and only the thinking about his family is the only thing had waken his will power up to stand up and climb down to camp three in critical state.

Words: 360

Response:

            The resilience and the desire to live of humans when they are in extreme situation are two things that I am really impressed in this story. The climbers referred in this video are wonderful image of people who want to face with difficulties and try their best to get over it. The environment in Everest is really really extreme. As we can see, the temperature is always sub - zero Celsius. In addition, very steep slopes and many deep hole carved into the body of the mountain always threat the lives of the climbers. Therefore, the desire of the climbers to conquer ‘’ the roof of our world’’ is precious. They knew that it would be dangerous and they would risk their lives; however, they still wanted to achieve it. In addition, the accidents that happened to the climbers were tragic and sad. Especially, the climber- Rob Hall- chose to stay with his fallen teammate even though it cost his life. And the thing that Beck still survived after laying in the snow for about 36 hours under the shattering freeze. It is a very vivid illustrations of how people can fight for their lives with their will power.

Words: 199