HIKERS:
Portable altitude chambers are specialized, lightweight devices designed to treat severe altitude illnesses. They are installed in 38 mountain cabins nationwide
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By Wu Sheng-ju and Esme Yeh / Staff reporter, with staff writer
Portable altitude chambers (PACs), a piece of equipment used to treat altitude sickness, have saved the lives of more than 70 mountain hikers nationwide since 2012, the Taiwan Wilderness Medical Association said.
Mountain hiking brings many health benefits, allowing people to boost their physical strength while enjoying natural scenery and has become a popular leisure activity over the past few years.
However, altitude sickness can occur during mountain hikes and its fatality should not be taken lightly, experts have said.
Photo courtesy of the Taiwan Wilderness Medical Association
Wang Shih-hao (王士豪), a doctor specializing in altitude sickness, said that people with high-altitude sickness could experience symptoms such as feeling drunk or having difficulty breathing.
Altitude sickness can be relieved shortly after a person is put inside a PAC, as the air pressure inside a PAC simulates conditions found at a lower altitude.
Wang’s interest in studying altitude sickness arose after he was rescued from a mountaineering incident in his school years.
The Yushan National Park Headquarters in 2012 adopted Wang’s suggestion to install a PAC at the Jiaming Lake Lodge (嘉明湖山屋), which saved the life of a hiker.
The incident inspired Wang to jointly establish the Taiwan Wilderness Medical Association with experts and well-wishers the following year, raising NT$8 million (US$244,312) to purchase 100 PACs.
Association secretary Lin Mei-chun (林美君) said tailor-made storage buckets for the 100 PACs were purchased.
However, the buckets were blue, and commonly mistaken for trash bins, with hikers dumping food waste in them, she said.
Some PACs became moldy and malfunctioned due to the food waste, while the smells attracted black bears to search for food around the sites and damage the equipment, Lin said.
Fortunately, many kind-hearted people over the years have helped the association replace the blue buckets with red ones, which are expected to decrease the likelihood of PACs being damaged, she said.
Association secretary-general Hsu Yan-hui (徐彥輝) said that with the help of the government, as of last year, 38 mountain cabins nationwide are now equipped with PACs.
Data showed that these PACs have saved the lives of more than 70 mountain hikers since 2012, he said, adding that the real number might be more than 100, as not every hiker would have registered their use of the equipment.
A mountain hiker from Keelung, surnamed Tai (戴), had an oxygen saturation level of only 50 percent while on the way to visit Jiaming Lake in 2021.
He was saved after his tour guide put him inside a PAC installed at the mountain cabin they were staying in, Hsu said, adding that Tai, wishing to express gratitude for his life being saved, has donated money to the association every month over the past four years.
Aside from being installed at mountain lodges, some of the 100 PACs were given to mountain rescue-related fire brigades and rescue agencies free of charge to help save lives, the association said, adding that other PACs are being operated by the association to train the public in how to use them.
Although instructions are provided on a poster on the wall behind every installed PAC, operating it could still be challenging, an association worker said.
However, the association has limited resources, volunteers do not frequently go to the mountains to conduct maintenance and it is difficult to install PACs at remote mountain lodges without the use of a helicopter, he said.
Therefore, people are advised to learn about the equipment online or take part in a PAC training course to be able to properly use the equipment in case of an emergency, they said.
Hikers should learn how to use PACs before they hike in the mountains, as the PAC instructions on the posters in the cabins are not guaranteed to be intact and Internet connections are mostly unavailable in the mountains, Hsu said.
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