Children climb Everest for extreme science – and a high-altitude Easter egg hunt

Twelve children from across the UK are set to take part in the Xtreme Everest expedition, which aims to help clinicians better understand how to treat critically ill children.

The group will set off on Wednesday 27 March 2013 to ascend Everest, trekking from Lukla to Namche Bazaar in Nepal, where they will undergo a range of rigorous tests at an altitude of 3,500 meters.

The children, aged 8 to 16, have already undergone a series of assessments at the London Clinic, to gather baseline data on their normal physiology. By capturing changes in the physiology of an average group of children at high altitude – where their bodies will adapt to lower levels of oxygen in the air - researchers hope to better understand how to treat children in intensive care with low oxygen in their blood.

One of the children taking part is nine-year-old Jack, a former patient at GOSH. His father, Lee, will be accompanying him. Lee comments: “For my son and I, this is a once-in-a-lifetime trip and a chance to give a little back. We were lucky enough to be helped by the brilliant doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital when we were in need, so it is wonderful to take part in a study that has the potential to help children in intensive care in the future.”

Jack adds: “I’m really glad that I’m helping other children get better.”

Dr Mark Peters, Intensive Care Consultant at Great Ormond Street Hospital who is leading the children’s expedition, says: “The testing we are doing is a world first, because at high altitude we can isolate the effect of low oxygen on otherwise healthy children. We want to describe the physiology of kids who do well at low oxygen levels, to then apply that knowledge to treat patients in intensive care.

“Research with these children will address questions like: Is oxygen extracted more efficiently at altitude by the muscles? Does the muscle ‘learn’ and alter molecular pathways to become more efficient? We know that tissue dies when it doesn’t get enough oxygen, but we also know that too much oxygen can be damaging, so we hope our findings will help us to optimise the delivery of oxygen to patients in a critical condition.

“We hope that these and other children will be inspired by the science and research behind this expedition. As a thank you for their efforts, we hope to organise a high-altitude Easter egg hunt for these young, intrepid volunteers.”

Three of the many instruments the team will be carrying to monitoring children’s physiology are:

• An ultrasound cardiac output monitor to look at how blood flow changes as it leaves the heart to distribute oxygen around the body.

• A near-infrared spectrometer to look at how the muscles perform in a lower oxygen environment, to see whether they become more metabolically efficient – that is, better at pulling out the oxygen they need to do their work.

• A trans-cranial Doppler to look at blood flow in different parts of the brain.

The children’s trek will leave on 27 March and return on 12 April 2013. It forms part of the Xtreme Everest expedition, where a larger group of over 150 adults have already started their ascent to be tested at a range of high altitudes. The previous trek in 2007 had nine children and was limited in what could be measured with instruments available at the time. The 2013 trek will involve more sophisticated equipment with which to measure changes in the human body.

More information on the Xtreme Everest expedition can be found at www.xtreme-everest.co.uk.