Doctor Peter Hackett Telluride Medical Center
By Rosemery Wahtola Trommer
Like most people who come to Telluride, Peter Hackett, M.D., was drawn by the mountains. But more than the craggy vistas and powder skiing, he was attracted by their elevation: They’re high enough to make people sick. And whether he’s in Telluride, Alaska or Nepal, studying altitude-related illnesses is Hackett’s passion.
Over the last three decades, Hackett’s pioneering work at high camp on Denali, Mount Everest and now in Telluride has significantly improved the understanding of high-altitude physiology and the methods for coping with life-threatening conditions, such as cerebral and pulmonary edema. “He’s one of the world’s best known high-altitude medicine doctors,” says Rick Houk, who served on the hospital district board in 2000 when Hackett was hired as director of emergency medicine at the Telluride Medical Center. “We’re lucky to have him here.”
In addition to his work at the medical center, Hackett also directs and coordinates the San Miguel County Emergency Services, works in the emergency room at Montrose Memorial Hospital, serves on the faculty at the University of Colorado’s school of medicine, and is the co-chair of the International Hypoxia Symposia, a group of high-altitude medicine specialists who gather every two years. He writes for medical journals, consults, and spends time with his son, Tashi. “I don’t know how he does it all,” says Houk. Hackett laughs at his hectic schedule. “Yeah, it’s pretty busy,” he says. “But I love it—especially the international stuff. It’s a small world, and we need to work together.”
His career stemmed from a love for the mountains. As an avid backpacker and skier in college and medical school, he chose to do some post-graduate work at San Francisco General Hospital because it was close to Yosemite. The grueling training curbed his play time—he only visited Yosemite twice, each time for 36 hours.
Eventually, he found his way to the valley. “I was upset by the amount of violence I saw in San Francisco, so I took a break after the internship and became a helicopter rescue doctor in Yosemite.” In fact, Hackett was the first emergency medical technician in a national park. “I was also the first doctor they had on a helicopter team,” he says. Then he chuckles. “That’s probably because most doctors aren’t willing to work for $4.47 an hour. And that was the best summer of my life. I’d fight fires during the day on the fire line, then the Helitac team would pick me up for rescues. I got to live in a cabin in the woods with an owl for a neighbor, and that was when I got into rock climbing.”
One night in Yosemite, Hackett advised a rock climber who had broken a few bones. Turns out the fellow had a mountain travel business and needed a doctor in Nepal. “I was supposed to do three treks in three months. I stayed six years.”
While there, Hackett worked out of a village at 14,000 feet. “Not much was known then about mountain sickness, so I started collecting data, and in 1976 I published the lead article in The Lancet, the world’s most widely read medical journal.” His initial study included his research on 278 trekkers with mountain sickness. “Bingo! That was it. That started my career.”
His career is full of, ahem, high points. In the mid-’70s, he founded the Himalayan Rescue Association in Kathmandu, Nepal. In 1981, he was a doctor and mountaineer on John West’s American Medical Expedition to Everest and successfully soloed the summit. If you find yourself in the ER with the ability to chat, ask him about his near-fatal fall down the Hillary Step.
In the early ’80s, he founded the Denali Medical Research Project in Anchorage. And in 1995, he moved to Grand Junction to work at St. Mary’s Hospital, but “I needed to get higher,” he says. “I needed to get out of the heat and get to an altitude location so I could see altitude-related problems.” He found work at the ER in Montrose, and ultimately in Telluride. “I just kept working my way up the valley,” he says. “To work any higher in this region, I’d have to start seeing patients at Allred’s.”
Hackett has a particular fondness for working with Telluriders who find that they have physical conditions that can make high-altitude living difficult, such as high blood pressure, pregnancy or asthma. “My goal is to keep everyone here that wants to stay here,” says Hackett. A town filled with adventure addicts benefits from a board-certified ER doc who staffs the emergency room with the highest-quality personnel. Under his direction, Telluride’s ER became Colorado’s first state-certified Level 5 trauma center. And he has helped to coalesce the efforts of the EMTs, search and rescue, and ski patrol, so that in an emergency, all goes smoothly.
Jill Masters, who has worked with Hackett as a paramedic and as training director of Telluride’s Emergency Medical Services, says, “Professionally, Peter is my favorite doctor to work with. He has so much experience that he knows how to handle any emergency—calmly. And on a personal level, he’s a nice guy.”
Though he continues to travel worldwide to lecture on mountain sickness, Hackett believes he’s in Telluride to stay. “It’s nice to be appreciated in this town,” he says. “We [emergency services] enjoy a tax subsidy, which keeps the quality high, and I feel as if the community is behind us. It’s a joy to work here.”
