High altitude sickness is not predictable! It could happen to any trekkers no matter how experience he or she is. The first thing about altitude sickness starts with headache, there are some symptoms and post stages of acute mountain sickness. Here is a another read about symptom, treatment and way to avoid mountain sickness.
In early periods of sickness, it could be cured with some methods like drinking enough water, extra rest days and hiking slowly. However in worse case immediate medical evacuation might be needed! If you have a valid and right travel insurance plan, here is a way to use your insurance for you safety.
See also, the importance of travel insurance.
You will need the following details to ask help from your insurance coverage.
[su_list icon=”icon: hand-o-right”]
- Soft or hard copy of policy invoice issued.
- Emergency hotline, worldwide contact number.
- Insurance policy number
[/su_list]
Type of people you meet, when you are sick in Everest Region
1st Person
It is early sign of altitude sickness. It happens to many people. This had happened to my past trekkers. Also I saw similar cases for other. Some of them were evacuated back to Kathmandu. Drink adequate water, take rest and better to take a medicine. I have a diamox, ask if you need.
2nd Person
You can kick your sickness away, this is just preliminary phase! You should consider spending an extra night here. Just walk around, hike a little up in day time. If you feel good continue if not you should start descending down from here back to village. Descend at least three to four hundred meters.
3rd Person
Drink this, here is a ginger tea. Ginger and garlic is good local medicine for high elevation. This will keep you warm from inside. Let me know if you want to try hot soup. If you feel weak and want to fly back via helicopter, you should consult me. I had good relation with airlines and pilot. I can help you on arranging the evacuation.
4th Person
Hello, you look weak, do you want to have some hot drink? I am local from Khumbu or I am doing business here or I am living in a village with my family high up here. If you need medical evacuation let me know, I can arrange a heli for you. Or if you had already contact the airlines or your insurance company, can you let me know which airlines heli is coming? I can contact a friend of mine in Lukla, he could send some goods from there. Heli will halt for a while for re fueling in Lukla.
5th Person
Do you have a insurance? If not let me know, I can arrange a evacuation for with. Cost will be in between USD 8,000 to USD 10,000. Depends on weather and multiple attempts. Also it depends on base of heli, whether it is coming for Lukla or Kathmandu.
6th Person
I don’t know his offers for you, I can assist you on finding a cheap heli. It could be as cheap as USD 6,000 or USD 7,000 if you use my service. (You will find several people like this, if you don’t have a insurance)
For realtime scenario, six kind of possible conversations are used above. This is a real experience of coauthor of this blog, who had done Everest Trek more than fifteen times. In some case it depends, sometime it could be very irritating and hard to handle. Here the first and second person are you trekking guide and his friends. They want you to be ok and motivate you to continue without letting your moral goes down. Here third, fifth and sixth type of people are more active and hassle you if you are independent trekkers. They are looking for some commission from the airlines. In some case they even charge you more. Fourth type of peoples are hotel owner. They offer you hot drink, not just because they are kind. Also they want to lift their good up from Lukla with helicopter. Here you should try to avoid third, fifth and sixth types of people.
How using your insurance coverage evacuation process goes:
[su_list icon=”icon: hand-o-right”]
- Call the insurance service provider, report them you need medical assistance
- Insurance provider will send a guarantee email for payment of cost incurred
- After this airlines will send helicopter as soon as possible for evacuation
[/su_list]
Later, insurance company will ask for all the helicopter flight logs, hospital report to reimburse the airlines. Most of the insurance companies now have local agent. You can contact you main agency and they will follow up their local agent if you are independently trekking. In case of trekking with an agency, they could handle all these things for you.