Kenneth Kamler, Md is a surgeon who also climbs mountains. He was team doctor on three expeditions to the top of Mount Everest, including the disastrous 1996 trip during which 6 people died. Kamler is both storyteller and advisor in his book, Doctor on Everest: Emergency Medicine at the Top of the World - A Personal Account including the 1996 Disaster. (The Lyons Press) Blackened limbs due to severe frostbite were the least of his troubles. I-V fluids are frozen solid, and abrasions cannot heal at such high altitudes. Kamler's day job is Director of the Hand Treatment Center in Hyde Park, New York, where he is a microsurgeon. He's done research on telemedicine for NASA and Yale Medical School.
Copyright 2000 Fresh Air
