When Lungs on Mountains Leak

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Abstract
ON August 10, 1894, Pietro Ramella, a young Italian soldier taking part in physiological experiments, ascended rapidly to the Capanna Regina Margherita hut on Monte Rosa (4559 m), an Alpine peak bordering Italy and Switzerland. Within a day he had severe headache, cyanosis, dyspnea, rales, and pink, frothy sputum. He was thought to have pneumonia. A storm prevented his descent, but luckily he recovered spontaneously within a few days. An Italian physiologist, Angelo Mosso, suspected that heavy exertion at high altitude had contributed to Ramella's illness.1 In retrospect, Ramella probably had high-altitude pulmonary edema.More than 60 years later, in . . .