Climbing

My guess...

by crustyg - 2024-06-28 03:42:08

He was prone to VF, and carried an automatic external defib with him.  There are a number of contributors here who've had their implanted defib fire off when not needed (and probably a great deal more who've had their lives saved by their ICD firing off when it was needed).

*IF* I understand correctly, bouldering is similar to free-solo climbing in that it's done without ropes and rock attachments: imagine being shocked while you're hanging on by your fingertips before your next move on the boulders...

Life is all about choices.  He chose to live on his terms, and I, for one, salute him.

[Added] Selfish?: I think it's almost certain that he discussed his decision with his loved ones and dependents.

I salute him too, but

by Gemita - 2024-06-28 06:27:32

Hello BradyJohn, thank you for posting this exceptionally sad story.  I can understand the desire to go on indefinitely doing something challenging, risky that we love, but my feeling is that when one door closes, another door opens.  It is certainly not the end of life to have to give up what we most enjoy due to a dangerous heart condition that could end our life prematurely without appropriate treatment.  

Many of us have had to face a similar dilemma bravely at some stage during our lifetime for all sorts of reasons and it always saddens me when I read stories like this.  

I think it is important that we all have a back up plan should things go wrong, a plan that can get us out of trouble and back to living happily again whatever life throws at us.  There is so much in life that we can enjoy with our family and friends without taking undue risks.  Perhaps we should all learn to nurture other hobbies to fall back on while we can?

Sometimes we live or die by our choices

by IrishToast - 2024-06-28 10:05:16

There are plenty of divers, riders, surfers, horseback riders, swimmers, drivers, etc. who thought about it and chose the smaller risk of an untimely PM intervention, or made necessary lifestyle changes. Sometimes bad choices can shorten our life. It's  sad, but it's what he chose.

how sad

by Tracey_E - 2024-06-28 11:11:23

The way I read it, his condition was why he was told not to climb, not having/not having an icd. It sounds like he went back to climbing with his eyes open and went out the way he wanted to. 

A bit selfish

by Lavender - 2024-06-28 16:47:55

The article says:  

He progressively returned to climbing but always carried an AED with him.

“I chose a life with climbing over the risk to my own life,” Kurakami said. “But if the time came when I had to choose between climbing or my wife and family, I would not hesitate to give up climbing.”

I am thinking he may have stopped carrying the AED because the article says it's unknown if he changed his routine. 

He says he wouldn't hesitate to give up climbing if it came to choosing between that and his wife and family. He should've gotten the medically suggested device and chosen to do all he could for the sake of his family. 

Hard choices

by ezrk - 2024-06-30 10:27:13

So I do, not at nearly as high a level, many of the same things he did.  In fact one of my cardiologists discussed with me the risk of shocks while lead climbing. There just isn't a good solution for him - what he really needed was a way to temporarily turn-off the defribillation aspect temporarily but that is a very niche application which is unlikely to be created.

He had to decide if he thought the risk of getting inappropriately shocked while doing technical rock climbing (or really any shock basically) was greater than benefit of an appropriate shock while not rock climbing saving his life.   His calculation was that _any_ shock while technical climbing would be bad/possibly lethal (whether inappropriate or not as it would cause him to fall).  There is a bit here where that is a pretty exreme judgement.  Climbers do use protection to save them if they fall and could save him if he got shocked. But, very high level climbers tend to go very light on protection to go fast and there are often large sections they aren't safe from a fall.  Basically for him he couldn't keep climbing at a very high level with the risk of an inappropiate shock.

It looks like had an external defibrillator that he used to generally mitiage risk, but he wasn't wearing it when he died. It is worth noting that he appears to have died doing relatively simple hiking and not while doing technical climbing.  I suspect it is likely he didnn't want to carry the external device up a mountain (weight is a major issue) and felt he would likely be "ok..."