Nokia

Isla Cox

Expedition Medic

Isla Cox - Expedition Medic

Role Expedition Medic
Day Job GP

Isla is a GP based on the South Coast in sunny Brighton as well as in A&E and previous expedition medical experience.

"My last expedition was to the remote jungle areas of Vietnam following the Ho Chi Minh trail through villages that hadn't seen Westerner's since the war. If I get back from this trip safely I'm off to trek through the desert to Petra, Jordan in October."

"I am one of a 4 strong medical team on the Everest Test. Our role will be to ensure the general health of everyone on the trip, prepare and take out a full medical kit to be ready for any medical emergency that may occur. We are expecting approximately 5% of the participants to suffer with altitude sickness and are taking a portable decompression chamber to deal with severe cases. We're also taking a defibrillator as the incidence of sudden cardiac death is increased by exercising at altitude - going to make sitting on the sidelines watching the match a whole different experience for the medical team!"

Updates

Day 6

Today has been the hardest day so far. We've hiked approx 10 miles and have reached an altitude of 4410m. It's taken it's toll as several of the group have got acute mountian sickness and are requiring treatment. Luckily none of them appear too severe and we're hoping they'll be ok at this altitude for our acclimitisation day tomorrow. The medical team is certianly gettting a lot busier and expect to be even more so in ther next few days.

Day 5

Yesterday was a rest day with a beautiful acclimitisation walk. The cricketer who had to remain behind in Namche through sickness has now rejoined us and is looking well. Today involved a 3 hour trek followed by a 2 hour steep climb to take us above the 4000m mark. The medical team are expecting more cases of AMS as we have broken the 4000m mark and are very glad to have the himalayan mountain doctors with us again.

Days 2 & 3

Ascended 800m yesterday, several of the group have contracted gastroenteritis, and there are certainly nicer toilet facilities in the world. Thankfully most of them seem to be improving. This morning we began to ascend a further 500m however one of the group became suddenly quite unwell and had to have emergency treatment with iv fluids on the side of the track. Thankfully he responded well and is now back in Namche where he'll rest overnight before hopefully joining us tomorrow. There are a few other people beginning to suffer and we'll see what tomorrow brings.

Day 1

The hair raising flight from Kathmandu to Lukla was probably the closest we've come to a medical emergancy so far- wish I'd been wearing my heart monitor for that one. Since then we've had a great day trekking, all not too strenuous but some people are already feeling the effects of the altitude. Noone ill so far just headaches and nausea- although that could just be noones had more than 5hrs sleep since leaving London on Thursday, and we all can feel that we carried our packs today. And the best bit is I'm not on-call tonight.

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