At the beginning of the year, a 62-year-old British man, David Sullivan, the founder of the organization Code Blue CPR, went to Everest to install a defibrillator in the base camp for the first time in history—at an altitude of 6,700 meters. His deeply personal motivation is the loss of four friends due to sudden cardiac arrest, which became a global effort to teach first-aid skills to people around the world.
Just three weeks after the installation, the defibrillator saved the life of a 30-year-old mountaineer who had experienced a cardiac arrest. The initiative reflects Sullivan’s goal of making basic life-saving skills accessible to everyone, regardless of where they live. He is now launching a program to teach CPR skills and how to use defibrillators to 1.2 million schoolchildren in London.
The project is changing attitudes toward emergency medical care: where there used to be nothing, people will gain knowledge, tools, and—most importantly—confidence that even in the most extreme conditions, the chance of survival is real.
