ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Piedmontese climber Francesco Cassardo, 30, was rescued by a helicopter after two days, having fallen Saturday over 500 metres from a peak in the Himalayan mountain range. He remains in hospital, but his condition is better than was at first feared, according to a statement by Foreign Minister Enzo Moavero Milanesi.

 Cassardo, a doctor from Rivoli (Turin), fell while attempting to descend from Gasherbrum VII, a Himalayan peak in Pakistan which is some 6,979 metres high. Because of technical reasons, the helicopter which was meant to arrive at dawn on Sunday could not reach the injured climber and his partner, Cala Cimenti, until Monday morning.

 During the long and brutally cold Saturday night, Cimenti stayed with his friend and kept him warm with his body. “Don’t leave me alone, please Cala. Don’t go. I have a brain haemorrhage and I’m getting worse,” Cassardo said to Cimenti in moments of lucidity, reported Il Corriere della Sera.

 Cimenti wrote to his wife during the night: “Cassi [Cassardo] moves his legs and arms but he can’t walk. Now he’s in his sleeping bag, he’s semi-conscious and breathes laboriously, his hands are frozen.”

 In the morning they received the bad news that the helipcopter would not reach them that day. Cimenti, joined by two other climbers, transported Cassardo Sunday night on a sled back to the tent where they had stayed before attempting to climb.

 “Francesco is in the helicopter towards Skardu,” reported Cimenti triumphantly when Cassardo was finally rescued.

 His conditions are reported to be better than initially feared: he is conscious, though some fractures have been found, and further investigations are underway to build up a full medical picture, according to a spokesperson from the foreign ministry.

 Cassardo’s brother Stefano had appealed to the foreign ministry to speed up the rescue. "[My brother] has said that he cannot see very well… He has lost blood, and has enough lucidity to say that he needs a CAT scan to see if he has an effusion in his head and, if that’s the case, to stop it,” he had said.

 The Ministry of Foreign Affairs explained that it was doing all it could to ensure Cassardo was receiving the necessary help.

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