Life on Mt. Everest is hard. Hard on the spirit. Hard on the body. Dr. Luanne Freer assembles an all volunteer staff of doctors, porters and Sherpas in her quest to provide expert high altitude medical care to climbers attempting summit bids on the world's highest peak. Her mission: To take the proceeds garnered from treatments for well-funded expeditions and offer free medical care to the indigenous Sherpa people who make their meager yearly income during the climbing season. When American climber Joe Hughes contracts High Altitude Pulmonary Edema (HAPE) at 24,000 feet, his lungs begin to fill and teammates must drag him 7,000 vertical feet down the mountain to Dr. Freer. By the time he arrives at Everest E.R., he is literally drowning in his own blood.