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Mount Everest saved my life, says Whitby GP
A WHITBY doctor has told of how climbing the world's highest mountains saved his life after he suffered an almost fatal brain haemorrhage.
If it had not been for his daredevil adventures, which have included scaling the highest peak on each of the seven continents, including Everest, medics say Alistair Sutcliffe – who is a partner at Whitby Group Practice – would not have survived.
Just two per cent of people pull through after suffering a bleed on the brain like the one experienced by Dr Sutcliffe and they are usually fatal.
Most people don't make a full recovery.
The 45-year-old from Sleights was admitted to intensive care in Hull on 1 February this year after falling ill at home.
His wife Claire (37), a surgeon at Scarborough Hospital, rushed to his bedside where she clutched his hand and was told to say her last goodbye to her husband.
He even lost his sight for four hours, smiling made him physically sick and at one point he had a near-death experience.
But miraculously, Dr Sutcliffe, who has raised 25,000 for Saint Catherine's Hospice from his adventures which turned him into a record breaker, pulled through and has defied the prognosis of his fellow professionals.
Within a week after being released from hospital, despite being very weak and losing a stone-and-a-half, he was back on his treadmill to build up his fitness and began to write his memoirs.
Now his manuscript called The Hardest Climb has been snapped up by a top publisher and is due to hit the shelves next year, with some of the royalties going to the charity.
He said: "For some reason I knew I was having a brain haemorrhage.
"It felt like I was being hit in the back of my head with a hammer.
"Because of my climbing it saved my life. When I was admitted to hospital they found I had two circulations in my brain.
"It's unique which is why I've never had a problem climbing at high altitudes.
"When babies are born, their foetal circulation closes down at birth when the baby is exposed to air.
"Mine re-opened because I have been exposed to very low oxygen levels.
"It was this circulation that took over in my brain when it started to bleed which is why I didn't suffer any strokes.
"If I hadn't been as fit as I am, I would have died."
International publishers have expressed an interest in Dr Sutcliffe's 200-page book, which is being published by Kevin Duffy of Bluemoose Books.
It features the Whitby Gazette which the doctor took with him to the summit of each of the mountains that he scaled on his very first attempt, his 12,000 mile motorbike journey from Whitby through the Sahara desert to Timbuktu, his time in medical school and his 14 years spent working as a GP in Whitby.
There are even hopes of the book being turned into a film.
Dr Sutcliffe was inspired by veteran mountaineer Chris Bonington, whom he met when he was aged just 11 and who has agreed to write the foreword for the book.
He added: "When I started writing the book I really got into it and I was writing for 10 hours a day.
"It was really theraputic.
"Chris Bonington said he really liked it. I'm just delighted.
"It is a real compliment for me."
And there is no stopping for the doctor who recently completed the Redcar Half Marathon and is already plotting his next adventure for 2012 which is something that has never been done before – to climb the 29,028ft peak of Everest twice by going up the south side, down the north face and back up and over to the south base camp.
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Weather for Whitby
Sunday 05 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 1 C to 6 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: West
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Cloudy
Temperature: 2 C to 5 C
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