Medical City Pathologist Beck Weathers - Mount Everest Survivor — Transcript

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1. 0:01(upbeat music)
2. 0:04I'm Beck Weathers. I work at the Medical City Dallas Hospital and I'm an anatomic
3. 0:09pathologist. Basically, I read slides.
4. 0:15We diagnose anything which has a tissue
5. 0:18manifestation, that's most diseases. It's very much a scientific skill, but it's
6. 0:24one that gets to solve the puzzle.
7. 0:31I had the misfortune of being on Everest in 1996.
8. 0:37What was at the time, the
9. 0:38deadliest day in the mountain's history.
10. 0:42Caught in a terrible storm on the top of
11. 0:45Everest and we gradually began to freeze to death.
12. 0:48This is my death certificate,
13. 0:50this is a fax that was received by my wife. States basically that I've died. It tells
14. 0:56where I am on the mountain.
15. 0:58Both of my hands have been destroyed. The right side
16. 1:00was dead to above the wrists.
17. 1:03My face had been pretty much destroyed since I spent
18. 1:0615 hours face down on the ice.
19. 1:10(The feature film Everest is based on Dr. Weathers' experiences on the mountain.)
20. 1:19I thought the movie was done as well as it could possibly be done to tell the
21. 1:22story. The story is very complex, it has a lot of characters and the commitment that
22. 1:27they made, which was to make it as realistic as possible and as you know
23. 1:32these characters, whether you read about them or whether you see them on film, you
24. 1:36start to care about them and it's really painful to watch the story unfold and
25. 1:43see what happens to them.
26. 1:47(After surviving Mount Everest, Dr. Weathers came home to Medical City Dallas Hospital for innovative treatment.)
27. 1:56Over months, we managed to rebuild a nose upside down on my forehead and then
28. 2:00gradually got it to grow in the middle of my face.
29. 2:04I had a reconstruction done by Greg Anigan on my left side and went back
30. 2:10to work six weeks after they cut my hands off.
31. 2:13Most everything is negotiable
32. 2:13if you think about it, you can find a way to do it. I gave up some body parts but I
33. 2:18got back my relationship with my wife, with my kids. I was forced to reevaluate
34. 2:24my life. I always lived in the future and now, I live in the present.
35. 2:30(Medical City)