World's highest clinic battles to save lives

QOMOLANGMA BASE CAMP, Nepal, - As word came over the radio that a Sherpa had been struck on the head by a falling rock high on Qomolangma, known in the West as Mount Everest, the three doctors at base camp jumped into action, aware that saving him would be a life-or-death race against the unpredictable mountain.

Wary of the fading light that would ground the medical helicopter overnight, they administered emergency treatment on the helipad where the chopper brought him in - enough, they hoped, to give him a fighting chance of surviving the 20-30 minute onward flight to a hospital in Lukla, down the valley.

"He was bleeding, so we had to stop that and then get him down," said Suvash Dawadi, one of three doctors who has spent the last two months at the Everest ER.