Hanging by a Thread : The Missions of a Helicopter Rescue Doctor

Outdoor sports enthusiast and extreme doctor Emmanuel Cauchy reveals here for the first time the perilous rescues he’s performed in the world’s most terrifying and unforgiving mountain climates. Known around the world as the “vertical doctor,” Emmanuel Cauchy gives stunning and terrifying accounts of his days as a rescue doctor on Mont Blanc, which rises more than 11,000 feet in the Alps along the French-Italian border. From snowy mountain peaks and deep mountain crevasses to the small confines of a helicopter high above—Cauchy’s job takes him where most of us can only imagine.

Using new scientific research pioneered on the mountainside in life-saving medical procedures, Cauchy’s dramatic mountain rescues will leave even the most seasoned reader, doctor, or outdoorsman astonished. Here are seventeen years spent in the air and on the ground in some of the world’s most unforgiving territory. His tales describe the extremes of both climate and human endurance and reverberate with the author’s unshakable love of life.

This is an uplifting, extraordinary, and moving book from a great humanitarian stuntman who spent his time literally living life on the edge.

Emmanuel Cauchy is a founding member of the Institute for Mountain Search and Rescue Doctors. He spent nearly two decades saving lives in the mountains. He was born in 1960, in Normandy, and lives in France.