When David Sullivan, a CPR advocate and founder of Code Blue CPR, trekked to the Himalayas to install a defibrillator near Mount Everest, he hoped it might one day save a life. Remarkably, within just three weeks of installation, the device did exactly that—reviving a 30-year-old climber whose heart had stopped near Everest Base Camp.
How cardiac arrest preparedness reached new heights
In early 2024, Sullivan, a 62-year-old from Surrey, U.K., undertook a physically demanding journey to install what is believed to be the world’s highest publicly accessible defibrillator. The automated external defibrillator (AED) was tested at 22,000 feet and then permanently placed at a settlement near Everest Base Camp at around 16,500 feet—an area with limited emergency infrastructure but heavy foot traffic from global climbers.
Mount Everest is notorious for its life-threatening conditions, including extreme altitude, limited oxygen, and cardiac stressors. While not every fatality is due to cardiac arrest, it remains a significant cause of death in high-altitude settings. According to the British Heart Foundation, rapid defibrillation within the first 3 minutes of cardiac arrest can raise survival chances from just 8% to over 50%.
A climber’s collapse puts the AED to the test
Sullivan returned home from Nepal on April 30. On May 23, just weeks later, he received a call that stunned him. “It was the proudest moment of my life when I learned what had happened,” Sullivan told the Southwest News Service (SWNS). “It was last Friday (May 23rd), at around 3:45 a.m. I have kids traveling the world so I initially thought, ‘oh my God, something’s happened.’”
The call came from a Sherpa who had witnessed the device being used to save a young French woman whose heart had stopped while at high altitude. She was successfully revived after the defibrillator was activated.
“It was a Sherpa who told me the defibrillator had been activated and had saved a 30-year-old French woman’s life. I hope it will help people realize how important it is to have access to defibrillators,” said Sullivan.
From tragedy to global advocacy
Sullivan’s work is deeply personal. He began his mission to increase access to CPR and AED training after losing four close friends—all under the age of 45—to sudden cardiac arrest. In response, he launched Code Blue CPR, a nonprofit that educates individuals and communities around the world on emergency response protocols.
While in Nepal, Sullivan didn’t just install the defibrillator. He also led training sessions in CPR and AED use for local residents and guides—many of whom had never encountered this life-saving equipment before. These skills, he says, are just as crucial as the device itself. For more about international training efforts, visit the World Health Organization’s emergency care initiative.
Bringing lifesaving lessons back home
Now back in the U.K., Sullivan is channeling the momentum of the Everest success into a new domestic campaign. He is preparing a proposal to train 1.2 million schoolchildren across London in CPR and AED use, in collaboration with local and national government.
“We want every school to have a new defibrillator and every person in the school—students, teachers, staff—to have all the training necessary to save someone’s life,” Sullivan told SWNS. His goal: to make cardiac arrest response second nature to future generations.
His motivation is drawn from real-world experience. “I performed nine minutes of CPR for a young lad and used a defibrillator just three months after I had been shown how to,” he said. That day, as he performed CPR, nearly 30 bystanders watched without stepping in. “When the lad’s mum called me the next day to say he was alive, it changed my life forever.”
The larger message: Training and access save lives
Sullivan‘s story serves as a case study for what public health experts have long emphasized: making AEDs available and ensuring people know how to use them dramatically improves outcomes in cardiac emergencies. According to the American Heart Association, early CPR and defibrillation can double or even triple the likelihood of survival after cardiac arrest.
Whether at sea level or the top of the world, the key message remains the same: cardiac emergencies are survivable when people are trained, and equipment is available.