Xtreme Everest

In the UK one in five of us will end up in intensive care at some point in our lives. Of those, 20% will die. Hypoxia, lack of oxygen reaching the body's vital organs, is a common problem for patients in an intensive care unit. It is very difficult to carry out research on these patients, not least because they are so ill. Xtreme Everest is a dedicated team of intensive care doctors, nurses and scientists. They conduct experiments on themselves and other volunteers at high altitude and in chambers in order to develop novel therapies to improve the survival rates, and long-term outcomes, of their patients. The oxygen levels high in the mountains are similar to those experienced by patients in intensive care. Intensive care represents the knife-edge between life and death. Extreme illnesses require cutting edge research to provide solutions. Xtreme Everest is a not for profit organisation, led by doctors and scientists from UCL, University of Southampton and Duke University in the United States, conducting this innovative, cutting edge research.