Wilderness Medicine: HAPE Symptoms - Altitude Illness

[@MedWild]

See the instructor in this video (Dr. Howard Donner) give presentations and teach a variety of hands-on workshops at the upcoming National CME Conferences on Wilderness Medicine. All medical specialities are welcome! wilderness-medicine.com

[@Pipsqwak]

My elderly mother got HACE after spending several days at high elevations (over 10,000 feet) in Colorado. She'd had a stroke years before, and at first her symptoms were worrisome for a stroke, but she also had headache, lethargy, disorientation, hallucinations, delusions, and ataxia which led me to believe she was experiencing HACE. At the time we were in a remote area without medical services, so, as an RN myself, I knew the only thing we could do was to get her down to a much lower elevation as soon as possible. At 5,000 feet, she recovered almost miraculously, but I had her checked out with an MRI at the nearest hospital ED just to be sure she hadn't experienced a brain bleed (her previous stroke had been hemorrhagic due to a small aneurysm). Tourists need to be aware that AMS, HAPE, and HACE can affect anyone at altitudes like you find in the mountains of Colorado; especially the elderly. It's not just an affliction of fit young mountaineers in the Himalayas or Andes. Even if you've lived at high altitude (we were returning to Colorado where us kids grew up in Leadville at over 10,000 feet, after an absence of several decades), you can still get it.

[@alskyd]

HAPE sounds so great...

[@Tedd-E-Bare]

Can these symptoms persist for several weeks after leaving high altitude and returning to lower altitude?

[@simplefieldcraft]

Can I ask that when giving information that involves measurement can we also state the metric equivalent. The USA is 1 of only 3 countries that use imperial measurements. Thank you. A low grade fever to me would be 37.5'c to 38'c.