Bhatti as he was found just below South Summit
Hours later while descending, after his own summit, Werner ran into the team of Sherpas preparing to take Sange down. Werner helped one of the guides from the group, Nima Galzen, with Bhatti. According to him, at this point Bhatti could walk fairly well. They made their way to the Balcony and waited for help. Sange’s situation was more precarious, so Sherpa Kangri’s team wanted to take him down first. They were under the impression that help was on its way up so they left. Werner and Bhatti were left alone.
Werner checked his oxygen and determined he had enough to help take Bhatti down himself. He secured Bhatti in front of him in a classic ‘arm rappel’ and off they went. They walked for several hours. With each step, Bhatti was getting more and more tired. “Whenever he wanted to stop,” says Werner, “I screamed ‘Think about your kids!’”
Closer to the camp they managed to catch up to the team of Sherpas taking Sange down. Seeing them, Nima Galzen stepped in to help Werner take Bhatti further down the mountain. They were joined later by a guide from Werner’s own company, IMG. Around 45 minutes from camp, Bhatti collapsed completely. Some rest, tea and dexamethasone tablets later, Bhatti was able to get back on his feet and, with assistance, continued to walk. “We need a doctor!” shouted Werner as they entered the camp.
The Treatment: Dr Gallant Recounts
Dr Ellen Gallant, who was scheduled for her own summit push that night, was sitting outside when she saw Bhatti being escorted into camp by a group of climbers. She ran over to them with emergency medication.
“Bhatti’s responses were slow,” she said. Dr Gallant treated him for potential celebral edema and pulmonary edema and used warm Nalgene bottles to warm up his core. “I took off his gloves to look at his hands which were cool but his fingers were moving,” she adds. “At this point we put him in a warm sleeping bag and a tent.”
Bhatti was not left alone as he previously claimed, she insists, they checked on him multiple times. Later, Bhatti was long-lined out of C3 by helicopter.
Sange was in a far worse state. “When I got to him I was convinced Sange would die.” Giving him the same medicines and treatment as to Bhatti, what she saw when she took off his gloves to check his hands shocked her. “They were cold as ice and sort of frozen into ‘claws’,” she relates. “We took warm water and put Sange’s hands into the bowl to try to warm them up.” He was bundled into a sleeping bag and placed inside a tent. Sange would survive, but not all of his hands.
Sange is currently getting treated at a clinic in Vail, Colorado. As of now he doesn’t know how his hands are going to recover, but he’s hoping to continue climbing. Although Bhatti managed to reach the summit, on several occasions he refused to heed the advice given by Sange to turn back. Any other Sherpa would’ve left him. “If I could go back I still wouldn’t leave him,” says Sange. “But I find hard to fathom the negative things Mr Bhatti has said about Sherpas.” He’s hoping that other climbers will listen to advice of the Sherpas.
“Money will always be there,” stresses Sange. “But life is more important.”
The writer is a member of staff
She tweets @madeehasyed
Published in Dawn, EOS, September 17th, 2017