Alistair Cook, 69, a British businessman collapsed and died from a heart attack just minutes after reaching Africa's highest peak, Mount Kilimanjaro (elevation, 19,336 feet), a climb that Mr. Cook wished to fulfill during his lifetime. Cook had just sent a text message to his wife Vicky Cook, telling her about his conquest of Africa's highest peak, but died shortly thereafter, before descending from the mountain's snow capped peak. He passed away on September 11.
COMMENT: Mr. Cook undertook the trek with four other climbers as part of a trip organized by Team Kilimanjaro, a company which specializes in climbing holidays on the mountain. Mount Kilimanjaro is Africa's highest peak and the world's tallest walkable mountain.
The sad part in this story is that Cook and his wife had only been married three years. On the one hand, there is merit dying for something you love and enjoy doing. Clearly, it is not for us to judge anyone on how they live their life to see it to the end.
A cautionary thought, though. I have had the unfortunate experience of having two colleagues die while I was traveling and working abroad with them. Both had severe cardiovascular disease. One of them ignored his disease, while the other was unaware of it. Dying in a foreign place away from home is never ideal; away from loved ones. Imagine the feelings the hikers Mr. Cook climbed Kilimanjaro with and how they will look back on the experience? Will there be regrets or guilt? Perhaps.
We will never know whether Mr. Cook had significant cardiovascular disease, unless of course his wife ordered an autopsy. My bet is, though, that he had heart trouble or peripheral artery disease, or both, and didn't know about it, or maybe he didn't want to know about it.
Respectfully, I suggest that anyone over 40 who plans on engaging in difficult hiking or exertion, particularly abroad, and Kilimanjaro would easily qualify, should minimally have a rigorous stress test and heart scan performed by a board-certified cardiologist before initiating travel. Better to know than not. Imagine Alistair Cook's last thoughts before he died?
Even though I ran races competitively for over 30 years, I never in a million years would have thought that one day I would have open-heart surgery, but in 2005, I did. Just because we feel good, doesn't mean we are.
COMMENT: Mr. Cook undertook the trek with four other climbers as part of a trip organized by Team Kilimanjaro, a company which specializes in climbing holidays on the mountain. Mount Kilimanjaro is Africa's highest peak and the world's tallest walkable mountain.
The sad part in this story is that Cook and his wife had only been married three years. On the one hand, there is merit dying for something you love and enjoy doing. Clearly, it is not for us to judge anyone on how they live their life to see it to the end.
A cautionary thought, though. I have had the unfortunate experience of having two colleagues die while I was traveling and working abroad with them. Both had severe cardiovascular disease. One of them ignored his disease, while the other was unaware of it. Dying in a foreign place away from home is never ideal; away from loved ones. Imagine the feelings the hikers Mr. Cook climbed Kilimanjaro with and how they will look back on the experience? Will there be regrets or guilt? Perhaps.
We will never know whether Mr. Cook had significant cardiovascular disease, unless of course his wife ordered an autopsy. My bet is, though, that he had heart trouble or peripheral artery disease, or both, and didn't know about it, or maybe he didn't want to know about it.
Respectfully, I suggest that anyone over 40 who plans on engaging in difficult hiking or exertion, particularly abroad, and Kilimanjaro would easily qualify, should minimally have a rigorous stress test and heart scan performed by a board-certified cardiologist before initiating travel. Better to know than not. Imagine Alistair Cook's last thoughts before he died?
Even though I ran races competitively for over 30 years, I never in a million years would have thought that one day I would have open-heart surgery, but in 2005, I did. Just because we feel good, doesn't mean we are.
