Doc Loves Medicine, Mountains

Doc loves medicine, mountains

By Natalie Andrews Deseret Morning News, Salt Lake City, Utah Published: August 3, 2005 It wasn't being on top of the world that was the best part for Doug

Brockmeyer. It was realizing he was going to get there. Pediatric neurosurgeon Doug Brockmeyer reaches the summit of Mount Everest on May 30 after three months of enduring the elements "There was that sort of moment — it was right below the South Summit that it hit me that this was going to happen," said the pediatric neurosurgeon, who reached the summit of Mount Everest on May 30 after three months of climbing and 10 years of planning.

From the top, "It's a hell of a view," Brockmeyer said. Tibet is on the north side, Nepal is on the south and the Himalayas stretch all around. Every day, Brockmeyer combines his love for medicine and mountains by working at Primary Children's Medical Center, high in the Wasatch Mountains. He has done the same in his travels. In Ecuador and Peru, he climbed those nations' mountain peaks and worked at medical clinics in both developing countries. Everest was always the eventual goal, but he had to wait for the planets to align.

"Everybody's got the Everest bug. Everyone that's a climber, anyway," Brockmeyer said.

He brought endoscopes — machines with cameras that detect brain tumors — and donated them to a clinic in Katmandu, a city below Everest. He spent two days teaching the doctors how to use the equipment. He worried he wouldn't have a chance to use the machines on a patient. But on his last day there, a woman came into the clinic with a brain tumor.

"It was like it was meant to be," he said.

They operated before he left to climb Everest, and he checked on the woman when he came off the mountain.

Still, Brockmeyer turned down the opportunity to be a camp doctor for the Everest expedition because he wanted to focus on climbing instead of other people's sicknesses. His medical knowledge was still needed when an avalanche crashed through camp and six trauma patients needed assistance. Brockmeyer helped bring the patients down from the camp. The hike from the base camp to the summit can be done in 10 days, but climbers have to get used to the altitude. Most of the three-month journey is spent playing a game of leapfrog to acclimatize the climber's body to the altitudes and thin air of the Himalayas. From base camp, Brockmeyer and guide Dave Hahn would jump up and down from different camps, going up and then back to the base camp.

Brockmeyer recalls this game of hurry-up-and-wait as the most frustrating part. There was a lot of waiting. The two played Scrabble and cards, and Hahn records the camp breaking out into a talent show — complete with a fiddle and magic show — on day 61.

Once acclimatized, they waited for good weather at the fourth camp to make the hike to the top of the 29,035-foot peak. By that time, Brockmeyer had learned a valuable lesson about Everest.

"Everest lets you climb it. It's not the other way around. I truly believe that going up there with the right mind and intent pays off," he said.

Still, sometimes the mountain doesn't explain why it's not fair. Brockmeyer was one of three Utahans to reach the summit May 30, and one Salt Lake resident turned around on his third try to the top. Brockmeyer found the journey almost spiritual after observing the Sherpas' rituals and the ways of the mountain.

What does one do at the top of the world? The summit is just barely larger than a parking stall, so there is only room to take pictures and give each other high fives, Brockmeyer said. He took his oxygen mask off for 20 minutes, but felt woozy, so he put it back on. Then it was time to go home. Because a past ankle injury was bothering Brockmeyer, he and Hahn rode a helicopter out of base camp.

Once home, Brockmeyer didn't let his hike cramp his work schedule. He arrived back on a Saturday and, after greeting his family, was in his office. He performed a surgery that Monday and saw patients Wednesday. His secretary, Pam Foote, expected things to gradually get busy again. But even a month after Brockmeyer's return, her desk is still piled with memos and paperwork waiting to be filed because she hasn't had a dull moment. Foote wasn't surprised when Brockmeyer announced he was going to Everest. He's had a poster of the mountain above his desk for 10 years, and she's always known him as someone that likes to "push his limits," she said. The office staff and some of his patients followed his journey through dispatches that Hahn posted daily on the Internet via satellite phone.

Hahn also was impressed with Brockmeyer's character.

"Doug was patient," he said. "That would be a worry for me for somebody as driven and successful as a pediatric neurosurgeon, but Doug was wonderful that way. He seemed to understand the Everest game and how you need to bide your time and be around for the finish of it."

After reaching the highest point in the world, what's next for Brockmeyer? Time with family and friends, he said. He plans to climb with friends in Alaska later this year, but nothing big, just more to be with friends, he said. He hopes his children, ages 13 and 10, learn from his example as a doctor and a climber that they can live their dreams.

Doug & Deb Brockmeyer atop Mt. Whitney, CA

Doug on DVD

Be sure to see the epic motion picture “Vertigo Limit”, starring classmates Doug Brockmeyer and Steve Asahino, now out on DVD!

A local down-and-out realtor teams up with a burned- out brain surgeon in an effort to thwart a radical Muslim terrorist plot to blow up America’s highest peaks.

Ebert and Roper rating: 3 thumbs up!!!