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Everest survivor doing well
31/05/2006 11:18 - (SA)
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| Australian mountaineer Lincoln Hall, 50, leaves a clinic after he received treatment in Katmandu, Nepal. (Binod Joshi, AP) |
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Katmandu - An Australian climber who was left for dead on the slopes of Mount Everest but later survived has been rescued from the mountain and is in "amazing shape," his spokesperson said on Tuesday.
Lincoln Hall, 50, was driven to the Nepalese capital of Katmandu on Tuesday from the base camp in Tibet, China, and is being treated at a clinic, his spokesperson Simon Balderstone said.
Hall had been left by members of his team near the summit who thought he had died but was later found alive by another team of climbers and helped down the mountain.
"Doctors say for what he has been through he is in amazing shape," said Balderstone, who flew to Katmandu with Hall's wife, Barbara.
Hall was being treated at a travel medicine clinic in Katmandu for frostbite to his fingers, thumb and toes, slight pulmonary edema and chest infection.
Balderstone said it could be a few days before Hall can fly back home to Australia.
Balderstone said Hall expressed no resentment about being left on the mountain and said the climber was in good spirits.
"We shared a joke or two, which is always a good sign," he said.
Hall fell ill around the 8 700m point, just below the summit where oxygen levels are so low they cannot sustain life for long.
His two Sherpa guides tried to help him down, but were eventually forced to leave him in order to save themselves, and Hall was then declared dead.
Hall, who had been on a Russian-led expedition, made it to the summit of Everest but grew gravely ill from oxygen deprivation during his descent.
The morning after his guides were forced to abandon him, other climbers found him alive, prompting a rescue team to help bring Hall to safety.
- AP
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