Death Of A Trekker

[39thdecendant]

As many would have heard, a relatively young man of 39, collapsed and died on the track this week from a suspected heart attack near Denaki while trekking with Kokoda Spirit. This is a timely reminder to all would be trekkers who are thinking of attempting the track without the assistance of a registered trekking company. This is a primitive and unforgiving land, and incidents like this can happen to anyone. This was a relatively fit man, who had a doctor’s certificate of clearance. Once on the track, there are NO communications and registered trekking companies have emergency contingencies in place for situations just like this one. There is no SES, there are no Search and Rescue helicopters, and there is no flying doctor service. If an emergency arises, it will ultimately be up to the trekking companies to respond. While my heart goes out to the families of this man, bear a thought for the situation the trekking leaders would have found themselves in. Firstly depending on where he collapsed, there would have been little or no signal for the sat phone, which meant a runner would have had to be dispatched with the phone to try and get a signal to call for help. Any aircraft would have had to have been dispatched from Port Moresby, at least an hour if not more away from Denaki. Then they would have had to get him to a site where a helicopter could land and pick him up, weather permitting. Unless a doctor could be dispatched with the helicopter, the nearest hospital is at Kokoda, which is only run by a nurse. I can only imagine what they must be feeling now, and know they would have done everything in their power to save him, but even with all their prior planning and experience, the unthinkable has still happened.
I have not posted this to scare would be trekkers, simply to enforce to all that the registered trekking companies are fully aware of how arduous and inaccessible the track is and all have contiguity’s in place in case of an emergency, but incidents such as this are a all too real possibility. To attempt to trek this track, without an experienced trek leader, without some sort of communication device, and a base in Port Moresby to be in constant contact with in case of emergency, and without an emergency plan in place, if an incident does occur, would in my mind, be very foolish and inconsiderate. Please remember that Kokoda is the trekking companies domain, they have, in conjunction with the Kokoda Track Authority spent a considerable amount of time, money and effort in putting safety procedures in place to protect all trekkers and to keep Kokoda relatively safe. I can say for absolute certain there is no other place in PNG where a sole expat female could walk with only local escorts for 7 days without fear of being attacked. It is expensive to trek Kokoda, and the trekking companies no matter how passionate they are about Kokoda, ultimately are a business and are there to make a living. I can fully understand when people are told how much it will cost them, to decide to trek themselves to try and save money, however what price do you put on safety? To the family and friends of the man who died, my deepest sympathies, it is no consolation to you I know, but be comforted by the knowledge that there are many spirits of brave men up there, he is in good company.

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