Mountaineer Anurag Maloo, who was rescued after falling into a deep crevasse in Nepal’s Mount Annapurna last month, was airlifted from Kathmandu to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in New Delhi on Thursday. He was taken to AIIMS’s Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Centre, where he was admitted to the ICU. A team of doctors and Maloo’s brother, Ashish, accompanied him on the air ambulance that took off from Nepal’s capital before noon. Maloo’s cousin Gaurav Chhaparwal said that though doctors have not yet said that the 34-year-old is out of danger, the family is hopeful about his recovery. Chhaparwal said Maloo’s condition has been gradually improving since having been rescued. “When he was brought to AIIMS and moved out of the ambulance, he was conscious. He was able to communicate, and when we asked him questions, he was nodding and smiling,” said Chhaparwal. The mountaineer, who had earlier been receiving treatment at Kathmandu’s Mediciti Hospital, was taken by road earlier on Thursday from there to the city’s Tribhuvan International Airport, from where he was brought to New Delhi in an air ambulance. A resident of Kishangarh in Rajasthan, Maloo went missing on April 17 after falling from an altitude of 5,800 metres while descending from Camp III on Mount Annapurna – the 10th highest mountain in the world, which is known for its treacherous terrain. His cousin said that Maloo loves mountains and that he had done several mountaineering courses. “Last year, he climbed Mount Amadablam peak, a mountain in the eastern Himalayan range of Province No 1, Nepal,” Chhaparwal said. Maloo works with a startup incubator promoting young entrepreneurs. He has also worked as a teacher for underprivileged children in Delhi under the Teach For India programme. An accomplished climber, Maloo survived in the avalanche-prone crevasse on Mount Annapurna for three days before he was located on the morning of April 20 and rescued. He was first taken to a nearby medical camp, then to Manipal Hospital in the Nepali city of Pokhara, and later to Kathmandu’s Mediciti Hospital, where his condition finally became stable. As he was being brought out of the Kathmandu hospital, Maloo’s parents tearfully thanked the doctors and others there who helped in his treatment. A member of the multidisciplinary medical team that treated him at the Kathmandu hospital told The Indian Express, “For someone buried in the snow for 68 hours to get back to life is a miracle, but it happened in his case. The frostbite and resultant gangrene require long-term treatment. It was the right decision on the part of the family to take him nearer home for subsequent treatment,” he said. Chhang Dawa Sherpa, Director of Seven Summit Treks, who supervised and led the rescue operation, had earlier termed Maloo’s rescue “a miracle”, adding that it was perhaps the “riskiest” rescue operation in the mountains. He said he has been involved in around 60 such operations. Cousin Chhaparwal lauded Maloo’s will power, and said, “It is a miracle that he was found and brought back to Delhi. I am very positive that he will make it.”
