Summary of Left for Dead

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Summary of Left for Dead

Writer:     Cathy Free

 The essay ‘Left for Dead’ was written by Cathy Free. Free wrote the essay about a mountaineer who was left at the Everest by his team and rescued by another team of climbers.

When Mazur was reaching near the summit at 7:30 a.m. with his Climb teammates, Andrew Brash of Canada, Myles Osborne of England and their Sherpa guide, Jongbu, he saw a man sitting cross legged, trying to change his shirt. The man was without an oxygen mask, sleeping bag, food or water. There was no reason for Lincoln Hall to be alive at 28,000 feet, if nobody helped him. Hall’s team had reached to the summit of the Everest the last morning at 9 a.m.

They started climbing down to reach to the camp below after celebrating the glorious view from the top and taking victory photos. But, suddenly Hall’s feet have stopped moving and he felt deep fatigue at 28,000 feet. Immediately, he told a Sherpa that he wanted to lie down and needed to sleep. He was highly caught by cerebral edema i.e. a severe form of altitude sickness. The condition causes the brain to swell and leads to a stumbling, intoxicated gait, hallucinations and eventually, death. This area of the mountain is known as the ‘death zone’. It takes two hours to reach to base comp from this place. Two Sherpas tried to take him with them although other of the group kept going. After nine hours, Hall went limb. So, Sherpas left him dead there. Many mountaineers like a German climber Thomas Webber hand suffered from similar problem and died there.

Mazur decided to help Hall instead of climbing to submit of Mount Everest and all of his friends agreed him. Mazur asked his name, he replied Lincoln Hall. Mazur wondered that if the guy had a dead wish. Hall started tearing his clothes as far as possible. Tearing off clothes was symptom of hypothermia. Mazur made a call to the men in the camp below through his radio, a head Sherpa talked in radio with Mazur and expressed surprise hearing the news of Hall’s alive. In the afternoon a dozen Sherpas arrived to help Hall. Hall was brought down with the help of Sharpas.

It took two days to climb down to Mazur’s team. When they arrived they visited Hall, Who was then being taken to Kathmandu for treatment. Hall thanked the Mazur’s team even he was so serious. Hall thought that he was lucky to be saved in such deadliest situation.

Mazur viewed that if they had left hall in such situation and preferred to reach the submit, they would be regretting for ever not saving Hall’s life and it may always hunt them.

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