UAE: Doctor takes children, patient with osteoarthritis on inspirational trek to Mount Everest

UAE: Doctor takes children, patient with osteoarthritis on inspirational trek to Mount Everest

Among the biggest challenges was to motivate them, surgeon says

By SM Ayaz Zakir Published: Tue 7 Jun 2022, 7:54 PM

A Dubai-based knee-replacement surgeon, his daughter, two other children, and his patient suffering from osteoarthritis, made an arduous trek to the base camp of Mt. Everest to prove the power of mind over body.

Dr Azam Badar Khan, who practices orthopaedic surgery at Prime Hospital Dubai, said he undertook the journey with his patient and children in order to inculcate a sense of adventure among the younger generation and to show patients that mental fortitude can triumph over physical adversity.

Apart from the children and others in the group, including his youngest daughter Jaza, 12, Dr Khan was accompanied by his patient Rajesh who has been suffering from chronic osteoarthritis for over 15 years.

The 16 member group attempting the trek, spanned in ages from 12 to over 60. The group flew to Kathmandu from Dubai on May 22 and from there took another flight to Lukla - the nearest airport to Mt Everest and considered by many to be the world’s most dangerous due to its precipitous location surrounded by forbidding peaks deep in the Nepal Himalayas.

Beginning the trek from Lukla, the adventurers