I’ll skip the funny video for this post. There is a video associated with this post and it can be found at the bottom of the article. Emphasis is mine. Thanks to Deb for the heads up.
Mountain death video shocks Argentina
Argentina has been gripped by a video posted on the internet showing the failed rescue of an Italian-Argentine mountain guide who died last month near the peak of the highest mountain in the Andes.
The images of Federico Campanini, a 31-year-old guide, seen feebly struggling in the snow as his rescuers tried to cajole and pull him to his feet, have sparked a public debate over the doomed operation.
Campanini’s father, who uploaded the video after receiving it anonymously, has launched a lawsuit, accusing the rescuers of abandoning his son.
“They went looking for a corpse and they found a survivor,” Carlos Campanini told reporters.
The video shows the struggle to bring the visibly weakened Frederico Campanini down from near the top of Aconcagua, the highest mountain in the Americas with a height of 6962 metres.
He was declared dead on the night of January 8 of fluid in the lungs, hypothermia and dehydration days after getting caught in a storm on the way down from the summit.
A 38-year-old Italian woman in the five-person group he was leading, Elena Senin, also died.
In the video taken before Campanini’s death, a rescuer says to the camera: “He’s not moving. I’ve asked permission from the judge (to abandon him).”
It was not clear which judge was being referred to, but the rescuer used the Spanish “jueza,” meaning a female magistrate.
In the next shot, Campanini is seen trying to get up in the snow.
“That’s it,” the cameraman is heard saying.
“Get up, you idiot,” another rescuer says.
“Go, damn it,” a rescuer says. Then: “Move, idiot!”
The cameraman is heard praying. “God, give him strength, please.”
Campanini weakly stirs, and the rescuers pull vainly on a rope tied around his waist.
The debate on the operation has focused on the rescue team being seemingly unprepared to find the guide alive.
The team had no oxygen for him, nor a thermal sleeping bag or stretcher to carry him.
The rescuers also had to climb back up to the summit to look for another path down — a difficult feat in itself in the thin atmosphere and one made all the more taxing by having to pull the listless guide.
“We’ve gone 10 metres, we can’t go any further,” the cameraman says after a cut in the video. The rescuers talk about setting up a tent. One says: “We are also fighting for our own lives.”
A rescuer talks in his radio. “Tell them he’s dying. He won’t last much longer. In 40 minutes he’ll be dead.”
The cameraman is heard crying. A rescuer says: “Come on Frederico, you idiot.”
Then the video shows the guide lying alone in the snow some distance away.
He was not moving. It could not be seen whether he was abandoned alive or dead. – NineMSN
Now, what is NOT mentioned in this article is that the rescuers made it to the victim in lightning speed. According to Fox News (and every other news article I’ve read):
While most experienced climbers take three to four days to scale the 22,841-foot Aconcagua, the rescue crew surged to the top in one day and were suffering severe fatigue in the oxygen-deprived air and minus-58 degree temperatures, Ibaceta said. The video shows crew members stumbling and repeatedly saying how exhausted they are. – Fox News
Wait, what? The team “surged to the top” in ONE day and didn’t expect to find the victim alive? Something doesn’t make sense. Why would the rescuers put such a rush in reaching a deceased victim? It is obvious they weren’t prepared.
Now, I was not there. I have no connection to the rescue team or anyone that even remotely is associated with the rescue. I have no way of knowing exactly what happened during this rescue but I can put a theory or two together as to what could have happened.
It’s hard to tell, but I can’t see any of the rescuers using oxygen. From what I understand, hiking to 20,000 plus feet can be done without oxygen but you have to do it over several days to let your body adjust and build up red blood cells to combat altitude sickness. I think the rescuers were experiencing some level of altitude sickness and it was clouding their judgment. Maybe they DID have the proper equipment to carry a live victim back down the mountain but the altitude sickness got the better of them and they decided to drop the backboard and pick it up later.
I just see absolutely no reason at all to “Gung-Ho” up a mountain at lightning speed putting your team and yourself in danger to recover a body. The rescue team is in “Cover Your Ass” mode, which is standard procedure and I understand that. What I can’t understand is why they charged up the mountain unprepared. Even if they HAD found a deceased victim they still would need some method of transporting the body.
On a rescue, live or dead, the chances are high the victim will be transported horizontally in a basket or on a backboard.
It’s hard to wrap my head around it all
UPDATE: I have found another source that states the rescue team was comprised of two police officers and four mountain guides that were closest to the victims and it was NOT a true SAR team. – CriticaDigital
