Defib Dave saves young climber on Mount Everest

CPR campaigner David Sullivan in Nepal: He trained Sherpa guides and villagers in CPR and the use of the automatic external defibrillator (AED) he installed. Only 3 weeks later, the locals were able to save a young French woman.

Three weeks after David Sullivan installed a defibrillator near the Everest Base Camp, it helped save a young woman’s life. “It was the proudest moment of my life when I learned what happened”, Sullivan told Southwest News Service. He visited Mount Everest for his organzisation Code Blue CPR, which provides defibrillators and teaches to use them in the UK and around the world.

“Defib Dave”, as he is called, lost four close friends to cardiac arrest, all were under the age of 45. He learned that survival rate in the UK is only 8%, compared to 50 to 60% in other western countries where automatic external defibrillators (AED) are more accesible and people get widespread CPR training.

The device he installed on Mount Everest is the world’s highest defibrillator, “Defib Dave” says. Some climbers that die on the mountain suffer a cardiac arrest, so the device could help, Sullivan thought. And didn’t think that he would be proven right so fast - a young woman from France, only 30 years old, suffered a cardiac arrest and was saved with the help of the AED.

Sullivan will now continue his work in the UK, where he wants to install defibrillators in all schools and train students, teachers and staff in CPR. He is convinced of CPR training since he saved a life himself - only three months after he had been shown how to, as he says. Sullivan performed nine minutes of CPR for “a young lad” and used the defibrillator to save the man’s life.