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Many people are familiar with altitude sickness and the effect it has on the body, but many people often fail to realize that there is a severe form of altitude sickness that even people living at higher elevations can fall ill to.
High altitude pulmonary edema — commonly referred to as HAPE — is a more serious case of altitude sickness that, if not treated quickly or properly, can lead to death.
Due to the cases she has seen at Frisco’s Ebert Family Clinic over the last several years, Summit County’s Dr. Christine Ebert-Santos has been working diligently to make the medical and mountain community aware of the risks of high altitude pulmonary edema.
According to Ebert-Santos, one of the reasons why high altitude pulmonary edema is such a risk to people living or visiting Summit County is that oftentimes it can be misdiagnosed for asthma or pneumonia.
“That is what we are taught in medical school,” Ebert-Santos said. “We are not taught about high altitude pulmonary edema, we are taught about pneumonia. When they get the X-ray of the kid that is sick with pulmonary symptoms they will call it pneumonia and put him on antibiotics.”
