Hospital in Leh

After landing in Leh, a small ambulance took me to the hospital.  Teresa Richey (Mark's wife) and her friend Lisa were there to meet me.  Teresa was very helpful in ushering me around as I was pretty sick and needed help.

In the hospital in Leh

By American standards the hospital was pretty grim.  The ER where I was first admitted was a room packed with eight beds full of patients and barely enough room in between to accommodate the staff and all their family members.  They put me in one of the beds, took my vital signs, and the doctor listened to my chest.  I had the doctor talk to Dr. Brownie Schoene in the US and they came up with a treatment plan for me that included four injections of an antibiotic.  I was a bit concerned about the hygiene of the injections, but I watched them use a syringe and needle that were from sterile packages.  The small bottle used for my injection had the name of the antibiotic on it that I was supposed to get and the nurse who administered it was skilled at finding a good vein.

Getting examined by the doctor

Teresa is originally from Peru where they have a tradition to stay with a hospitalized friend or family member 24 hours a day.  So Teresa wouldn't leave me and brought a sleeping bag and pad to spend the night on the floor next to my bed.  Just as she was bedding down, a rat scurried across the floor next to her head.  She jumped up and into my bed facing the opposite direction as me and spent the night there.  I coughed most of the night so neither one of us slept much.

Teresa in my bed after a rat scared her away from her bed on the floor



I was able to convince the hospital staff to let me go in the afternoon on the 27th so I could recuperate in my hotel room.  The hotel was a lot more comfortable than the hospital and I just had to go back to the hospital a couple of times for my last antibiotic injections.

Motip's office for RIMO expeditions was next door to the hotel so I stopped by to thank him and Teresa for all the work they did along with Global Rescue to get me off the glacier.  It was a great team effort!

The rescue team in Leh - Teresa and Motup!



I spent four days in Leh waiting for Mark, Freddie, and the rest of our team to show up.  They brought down everything from the Advanced Base Camp on the 27th, evacuated base camp on the 28th, spent the day on the 29th in the Nubra Valley, and on the 30th they drove to Leh and we were reunited .

We flew to Delhi on the 31st and after more R&R there we flew back to the US on September 2nd. 

Many thanks to those who have expressed concern for my health.  Since being home I've made a full recovery.  My lungs are nearly clear so my cough is mostly gone and I'm slowly getting back into running, bicycling, and rock climbing. 

This concludes my stories about our expedition to India.  Stay tuned for some stories from the northwest before I head to Canmore for the winter later this fall.