'Tears of joy' after defibrillator saves climber

A Surrey man who installed a defibrillator which saved the life of an Everest climber has said it made the mountain climb the "most amazing thing I've ever done".

David Sullivan from Oxted runs the Creating Lifesavers organisation, which raises awareness of CPR and aims to install more defibrillators across England.

These efforts most recently led the 62-year-old to the Himalayas, where he installed a defibrillator at an altitude of 20,000 ft (6096 metres) .

After returning two weeks ago, David said there were "tears of joy" when he learned the device had saved the life of a French climber whose heart had stopped.

He said: "At 4am my phone pinged. I thought it was one of my children. But it came from a sherpa 20,000 ft up Mount Everest.

"Yes, there are tears of joy. Our defibrillator was activated to save a young French lady's life."

Pemba, the sherpa who contacted David, said a young man from the Netherlands saw the defibrillator and used it with the help of an Austrian climber.

The swift response paid off, with climber Cecile now recovering well in a Kathmandu hospital.

David believes this incident demonstrates that more defibrillators are needed across the world.

He said: "This makes every step going up Everest the most amazing thing I've ever done. To know we saved this young lady's life is a crazy feeling."

Whilst in Nepal, David also gave multiple CPR classes and equipment to communities with no previous access to the training.

Now back in the UK, he hopes to expand Creating Lifesavers' work and aims to rollout a new school course to pupils in September.

He founded the Kent-based organisation seven years ago after losing four close friends to heart problems, all under the age of 46.

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