Melt My Wings

Book excerpt: Jim Icarus is a handsome twenty-two year old who is invited to trek to the base camp of Mount Everest by his Dad, Alex. His adventures start by saving a boy from a burning helicopter. He falls in love with Charley, a pretty emergency physician. She helps resuscitate his Dad who succumbs to high altitude mountain sickness in Dingboche, Nepal. By luck a working group who has spent the summer and fall cleaning the trash from the base camp of Mount Everest is camped a few hundred yards from Jim's trekking party when his Dad goes into high altitude cerebral edema. Their Gamow hyperbaric bag is successful in resuscitating his Dad out of coma, but unfortunately Alex slips back into coma. Good fortune smiles again when a French physician from the High Altitude Mountain Rescue clinic in Pheriche arrives with her Jacque Cousteau designed hyperbaric chamber that will pressure the victim down to sea level. An injection of Niphedapine under Alex's tongue and a dive in the Cousteau bag brings Alex out of his coma once again. Alex survives a trip to a lower altitude on a makeshift stretcher with oxygen flowing, but is in poor condition. Only a daring helicopter rescue offers any hope, but leaves Jim wondering about the fate of his Dad. The rest of the trekking party marches up the trail and eventually five members summit Kala Patthar, but not without another high altitude sickness casualty. Meanwhile, Jim hurries down the mountain only to have to wait in Lukla for a flight back to Kathmandu. Alex recovers unbeknownst to Jim and sight sees around Kathmandu. Charley transports the other coma patient by rescue helicopter, but never quite hooks up with Jim. Jim finally meets his Dad and they recount the events that nearly melted their wings.