12 Oct 2006 3.30am, our guide Man knocked the door and told us that Kok Yuen was sick. He got fever, felt dizzy and not able to walk in straight line. Foung Yee and Dee went out to take a look at him. We were then back to sleep and hope that his condition will be better in the morning. Early in the morning, Kok Yuen was not recovered. So, he descended to Pheriche(4243m) with a porter. There is a hospital in Pheriche where he can get the treatment. If he has recovered, then he will hike up and meet us at Lobuche after 2 days. Else he will go down and meet us at Namche Bazaar after 10 days. We thought that porters should be immune to the altitude sickness. But we were wrong, one of our porters was not feeling well but he insisted to continue the journey with us. So, 8 of us follow the original plan to Gorak Shep (5180m) with our guide and 4 porters.
Kok Ming, Dee, Peng Meng, Foung Yee, Hai Poh and Teck Long were ahead of Sui Jing and me. But after certain distance, Hai Poh will stop and wait for Sui Jing and me. The trek to Gorak Shep was a subtle set of ascents and descents. The ascent was not steep but at this point, trek on the flat trail was also tiring. We trekked in a barren area where only rocks, sand, glaciers and mountains were around us.
Around 1.30pm, valley with several lodges came into sight. I pointed the valley and asked a Sherpa “ Gorak Shep ? “. He nodded his head and said “Yes, yes, Gorak Shep”. Eventually, I had reached the last village of our trekking in east part of Khumbu Region. Gorak Shep is the highest / last village that provides tea house accommodation for Everest trek. We checked in Snow Land Inn. The tea-house was quite nice, have inside toilet and big restaurant.
Foung Yee looks tired when I met her at the lodge. She had arrived earlier. She sat on the bed with her eyes closed. Then, she lay down on the bed. I thought she only needs some rest, so didn’t disturb her and went down to restaurant to meet with others. Due to altitude, afternoon sleep is not good, so team mates wake her up and brought her to the restaurant downstairs. She told us that she felt very cold. Even after taking the hot garlic soup, she doesn’t seem to get better. Hai Poh and Teck Long hold her and could feel that she was shivering. Her condition seems to get worse. She went back to the room for rest and had become nearly unconscious in a short while. After consult the lodge’s owner, from his experience, he told us that Foung Yee condition was very serious. He suggested giving her oxygen for half an hour to temporarily relieve symptoms of altitude sickness and then descend immediately. At this moment, we had to take his advice. After taking the oxygen, she told us that she felt better and she doesn’t want to descent. Team mates advice her accordingly and finally she agreed to go down. Porter carried Foung Yee on his back and descended together with Peng Meng, Kok Ming, our guide and another porter that carried their backpacks. It was nearly 3.30pm when they descended. We were worried about them as the sky will get dark around 5.30pm and the temperature will drop very soon.
In a day time, 2 of our friends got AMS and descended. Our team had separated into 3 groups - Kok Yuen descended to Pheriche, Kok Ming, Peng Meng and Foung Yee descended to Lobuche and only left 5 of us (Hai Poh, Dee, Teck Long, Sui Jing and I) stayed at Gorak Shep. It really made us sad.After some discussion, we decided to continue the trek to Kalapattar(5545m) the next morning and then descend to Lobuche to meet with others. But if anyone of us is not feeling well, we will not go to Kalapattar and will descend immediately. We have to cancel the plan to Everest Base Camp as it takes longer time (at least 3 hours from Gorak Shep to EBC).
Our mood was down. What happened to Kok Yuen and Foung Yee now? Will the remaining 5 of us able to go up Kalapattar? I can only pray everything will be fine the next day.
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