Treacherous conditions: Brave Hobart doctors attempt to rescue woman in Chilean blizzard
Six Tasmanian hikers have survived a deadly snowstorm in Chile that claimed five lives. Here is their story of their tragic but brave attempt to rescue one of the blizzard’s victims.
It was a deathly snowstorm that no hiker would ever want to experience.
Six Tasmanian hikers who played key roles in a tragic and gruelling rescue mission, including four Hobart doctors, will soon return home after surviving a blizzard disaster on a Chilean mountain.
The Patagonian blizzard has been making international headlines this week after five people from England, Mexico and Germany died along the 120km O-Trek on November 19.
The challenging seven-to-ten day trek through the Torres del Paine National Park had attracted the interest of a number of Tasmanians, none of whom could ever have imagined what was in store.
Luke Bombardieri and his partner Olwyn Feely, both 28 and both Royal Hobart Hospital emergency doctors, were two of those Tasmanians.
“We were a few days into our hike when the weather conditions started to get worse,” Dr Bombardieri told the Mercury from Santiago.
He explained he and Dr Feely realised something “was off” when their group reached one of the rest spots, the Los Perros campsite, along the trek.
In a serious anomaly, a number of hikers from the previous group had returned to the campsite after attempting to cross the highest point of the O-Trek, the John Garner Pass.
“The energy was off. Something was wrong,” Dr Bombardieri said.
The pair went to set up their tent when it soon became apparent that several people from the previous group had gone missing, and they heard a man call for an emergency doctor.
“I’ll never forget hearing that,” Dr Bombardieri said.
He said the hikers then had to arrange their own rescue mission as there had been no response from emergency services or the campsite managers.
By chance, another Royal Hobart Hospital doctor – a senior emergency medicine registrar – was one of the hikers who had returned from the John Garner Pass.
That doctor, Lydia Birch, ended up leading the medical response that day – treating injured people suffering frostbite and hypothermia, and leading the attempted resuscitation of a Mexican woman.
Dr Bombardieri said a husband-and-wife pair, also visiting from overseas, with experience in search and rescue began recruiting people to forge ahead to the exposed pass, where the five hikers had gone missing in winds up to 193km/h.
A retrieval group, including Dr Bombardieri and Dr Feely, fashioned a stretcher out of hiking poles and ropes and set off.
“It was really windy to the point where we had to stop walking,” Dr Bombardieri said.
“We had to brace ourselves and had to really crouch down and hold each other and hold onto the trees, rocks, because we would have been blown down the bank.”
The group found the Mexican woman in a semiconscious state, suffering severe hypothermia, carrying her back to the campsite as they waded through snow piling up to their knees.
Carrying the woman back on the stretcher, the conditions were so treacherous that the rescuers didn’t know where they were stepping as “rickety bridges” began snapping under their feet.
“We had an amazing group of people at this stage – Germans, Australians, Irish, Polish, Chilean – we had so many nationalities coming together and the camaraderie was palpable and beautiful,” Dr Bombardieri said.
“Our goal at this stage was to get her back, go back to base where we could warm her up and hopefully, ideally, resuscitate her.”
Sadly, Dr Bombardieri explained, the woman went into cardiac arrest on the way down.
The rescuers were forced to balance the need to stop to give her CPR, and the need to get her back to camp to warm her up.
“Unfortunately, we weren’t able to save this lady,” Dr Bombardieri said.
“I had to break the news to the camp. The energy in the camp, I couldn’t describe it.”
He said it was by chance that the trek had attracted so many medical professionals.
“It was a very, very challenging afternoon but we had an amazing medical team and so many doctors on board, just by chance. We had Lydia, we had Olwyn, we had emergency trainees from the US, we had a pediatric intensivist from Germany and a nurse practitioner, just by chance – this is all tourists, the whole thing was tourist-led.”
Dr Bombardieri and Dr Feely will return home this week.
Dr Birch, 32, and her Tasmanian-born friend, commercial lawyer Robyn Lewis, 29, are also recovering from the traumatic journey – but for now will continue their travels.
Dr Birch echoed sentiments that the more than 50 hikers had been reassured by park staff that the conditions were safe, when in fact they were not, and said a midway shelter she’d been told would be open and staffed was in fact locked.
“We were told it was windy but not unusual,” she said.
“I deeply regret setting off. The conditions on the pass were the worst I have experienced in my life.”
Dr Birch said only two people made it across the John Garner Pass that morning in “terrifying conditions”.
Those two people happened to be her friends, Hobart GP Jess Ling and her partner Cal Pearce-Rasmussen, who raised the alarm when they reached the next camp.
The pair will also return home this week.
Dr Birch and Ms Lewis turned around after nearly making it to the top of the pass due to the “incredibly dangerous and deteriorating conditions”.
Dr Birch said she remained stationed at Los Perros to lead the medical treatment, with a team using the hikers’ camping equipment to set up a treatment area with mats, sleeping bags, nalgene bottles and jetboils for continuous water boiling.
Ms Lewis assisted with negotiating with staff, helping the medical team gathering supplies, and arranging logistics.
Dr Birch said the efforts of the hikers were “phenomenal” as they dealt with the attempted resuscitation, many cases of frostbite and frostnip, hypothermia, many traumatic injuries, hypoglycaemia, and a lot of acute stress and grief reactions.
“Five people lost their lives. I don’t really have words for how devastating this is. I think about these people and their loved ones often,” Dr Birch said.
Originally published as Treacherous conditions: Brave Hobart doctors attempt to rescue woman in Chilean blizzard
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