Vic: Melbourne lawyer rescued from Kokoda Track by US navy

AAP General News (Australia)
08-12-2008
Vic: Melbourne lawyer rescued from Kokoda Track by US navy

MELBOURNE, Aug 12 AAP - A Melbourne woman who fell ill on the Kokoda Track is recovering
in the intensive care unit of a US naval hospital ship.

Lawyer Debra Paver had been hiking the legendary track in Papua New Guinea as part
of the Kokoda Spirit tour group when she became ill.

She was taken to Alola Village where she suffered seizures and dipped in and out of
consciousness.

At the request of the US embassy in Port Moresby, the crew of the USNS Mercy sent a
Knighthawk helicopter to collect Ms Paver from the remote village last Friday.

The crew landed on a small patch of land in a dense fog bank, 1,800 metres up the mountains.

They arrived to find Ms Paver awake but incoherent.

US Navy Captain Peter Linz, the ship's medical operations director, said in a statement
that Ms Paver was responding well to treatment.

Within 24 hours, her condition had improved from critical to stable.

According to a blog by the ship's captain, Bob Wiley, Ms Paver was suffering from hyponatremia,
or low sodium levels, and had been unconscious for more than a day before being rescued.

"I am feeling a bit better," Paver was quoted as saying in the statement.

The hospital ship is anchored off the coast of Port Moresby as part of Pacific Partnership
2008, a US humanitarian assistance mission to South-east Asia and Oceania.

AAP md/gfr/jpm/jl/bwl

KEYWORD: RESCUE (SUBMITTED PIC AVAILABLE)

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