http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... escue.html
Excerpt:
Valley officer saves life of another on Argentina peak
by Jim Walsh - Jul. 6, 2012 12:00 AM
The Republic | azcentral.com
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Dazed and severely dehydrated, Bob Gabrych lay down on the bare, frozen ground.
The Surprise police officer was at Camp 2, 19,000 feet up Cerro Aconcagua, the tallest peak in the Western Hemisphere, in sight of the summit.
Valley officer mountain rescue
Moments later, Gabrych stood, his eyes glazed with a blank expression on his face. His body swayed as if he were drunk.
The thin air made breathing difficult.
Nearby, his tentmate, Mesa police Detective Ryan Hunt, was boiling snow to fill his water bottles for the ascent and noticed his odd behavior.
Through his training, Hunt recognized the classic symptoms of high altitude cerebral edema, or HACE, a sometimes fatal condition caused by the swelling of brain tissue.
It was 11 a.m. on Jan. 25, and Hunt and Gabrych were about 15 hours away from making the final 4,000-foot push to the top of the Argentine peak. They had come to Aconcagua, one of the fabled "Seven Summits," with other officers to honor the memory of an Arkansas officer killed in the line of duty.
Hunt had prepared for the trip for more than a year and spent hundreds of hours of intense cardio and physical training for the assault.
Just getting to Camp 2 had been an ordeal. After leaving Camp 1, they'd been caught in a blizzard and forced to turn back, only to spend a sleepless night fighting the cold and wind before starting back up the next day.
Hunt awoke early as most of their group left to ascend the summit. But he decided to stay with Gabrych and go up later. Gabrych slept most of the morning while Hunt busied himself with breakfast and the water bottles.
Hunt checked on Gabrych several times and became alarmed as his condition deteriorated. Gabrych complained of a severe headache and nausea, was mumbling, and his speech was slurred. Hunt gave Gabrych a dose of dexamethasone, a powerful anti-inflammatory drug that high-altitude climbers use to combat altitude sickness.
