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Study on effects of high altitude
on children
London:
A team of British scientists will lead a team of
children up the Himalayas towards Everest. The Smiths
Medical Young Everest Study will test how the nine children,
aged from 6 to 13, respond to high altitude and low
oxygen levels. Monty Mythen, Smiths Medical Professor
of Anaethesia and Critical Care at University College
London, said: "At sea level you can't tell who will
cope and who won't. On Everest, if we can understand
more about what makes someone a rapid adapter, we may
be able to find the switches and adaptors to help the
others cope". The Smiths Medical Young Everest Study
apart, a team of British medical practitioners are working
on the Caudwell Xtreme Everest project on the slopes
of Everest, involving 200 British volunteers. The project
involves testing the effects of hypoxia, shortage of
oxygen in the blood that occurs in acutely ill patients,
using a reflective sample of healthy adults.
Previously,
such kinds of studies have been carried out only on
mountaineers. But, as Prof. Mythen said, the problem
was that the findings of the project could not be safely
applied to children. "Children are not just miniature
adults. Their bodies function differently. The test
needed to be replicated with children. The results could
prove vital to the treatment of premature babies, babies
born with cystic fibrosis and sickle cell disease, and
children with congenital lung problems," The Times quoted
Prof. Mythen as saying. As it was very less likely for
parents to allow their children to be taken on an arduous
trek up the world's tallest mountain range, where altitude
sickness frequently afflicts even the healthiest of
men, Prof. Mythen decided to inflict the tests on his
own four children. Along with his own offspring, four
of the professor's nephews and nieces will shortly head
to Kathmandu, capital of Nepal. Their grandmother is
going too, as is Samatha Sonnappa, a respiratory paediatrician,
who is taking her own son Mayank, 6. Prof. Mythen will
first travel to Namche Bazaar, a Sherpa station between
Tibet and Nepal, to set up a laboratory. His colleague
Janet Stocks, Professor of Respiratory Physiology at
Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children, will lead
the children. Boarding a small fixed-wing plane, the
group will fly across the mountains to Lukla, landing
on a tiny runway that juts from a precipitous mountainside.
From there they will set off on foot along a lush river
valley along with a group of Sherpas. "It's just like
anywhere else really, except for the yaks on the pathway,"
said Prof. Mythen.
After
two days they will enter Everest National Park and make
a challenging ascent to Namchee, 11,180ft (3,440m) above
sea level for tests. Provided that they are still in
good health, the children will continue higher, up to
Tengboche to plant a flag beneath the towering spire
of Everest. The older children may then venture on to
Everest Base Camp, at 17550ft (5,400m), before descending.
"We would not say we are using the children as guinea
pigs, Rather they are being encouraged to put themselves
forward, following their father's own example, as a
man who once had a quarter of his blood removed to determine
what effect it had on the heart and blood pressure,"
said Prof. Mythen. "We think we have taken all the risks
into consideration. We have the right people on hand
and the route we have chosen provides a quick way down.
As for the apparent risks of taking children to a third
world country, they are travelling with paediatric doctors,"
he said. The children are also wildly excited about
striding to the frontier of medical science and human
exploration. Patrick, 13, said: I have climbed hills
in the Lake District but I have never done anything
like this". Prof. Mythen believes the tests the children
undergo could prove lifesaving, and open up a new frontier
of child-testing on Everest. "It will also demonstrate
the durability of new technology, including a "life
vest" that could allow sick children to be monitored
in their home rather than in hospital," he said.
-March
13, 2007
