Surviving 6 days in a crevasse

Abstract

In August, 2012, a 70-year-old-man fell 10 m into a crevasse (10 m depth, 1 m width) while crossing a glacier alone at 3000 m in the Austrian Alps. He was immediately wet up to his waist and gloves with no possibility of self-rescue. He was healthy, fi t, and was not taking any medication. He had a history of two leg fractures many years ago but otherwise an uneventful medical history. He had hiking equipment including gloves, hat, and some food, but was without specifi c glacier equipment such as crampons, iceaxe, and rope. In the crevasse there was some visible daylight and he sat down on his backpack. There was no cellular network coverage and his mobile phone battery was soon depleted. On the basis of the distance to the closest mountain huts he estimated that hikers could have been in his vicinity between 1000 h and 1600 h daily, during which time he periodically shouted for help. To conserve body heat he covered himself with rescue foil (200 cm by 135 cm) (fi gure). He rationed his food to a few biscuits and one row of chocolate daily (800 kJ per day), and drank water dripping from the ice, but he became increasingly thirsty. He reported that he had lost hope of survival on the fourth day, but resisted panicking. On the sixth day, hikers heard his call and a medical helicopter and rescue team were mobilised. Our patient was winched up from the crevasse and fl own to a local hospital. On assessment, his Glasgow-coma-scale score was 15, heart-rate 85 per min in sinus rhythm, blood pressure 120/70 mm Hg, body-core temperature meas ured epitympanically 33·5°C, serum sodium 130 mmol/L, creatinine 173·3 μmol/L, urea 90·4 mmol/L, creatine kinase 2·942 U/L, myoglobin 2·013 μg/L, uric acid 1058·7 μmol/L, glucose 8·9 mmol/L, Lancet 2013; 381: 506