Everest research resurrected

A partnership between Smiths Medical and University College London (UCL) has resulted in the development of a breakthrough clinical device that could transform the lives of patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).

COPD, a disease of the lungs in which the airways become narrowed leading to a limitation of the flow of air to and from the lungs causing shortness of breath, will be the third leading cause of death worldwide by 2030, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The new technology is based on a closed circuit oxygen device invented more than 50 years ago by the British rocket scientist Tom Bourdillon, who hoped it would help take him to the top of the world.

Three days before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay made the first ascent of Mount Everest in 1953, Bourdillon nearly got there first with the help of his ground-breaking invention.

When he and his climbing partner Charles Evans, a British brain surgeon, set out on the first ever summit attempt they were breathing pure oxygen from the device. It helped them climb higher than any man had ever been before and at speeds that have rarely been matched since.