The Purchon Papers

Africa
AIDS and COVID-19: Two Pandemics, Forty Years Apart — and One Long Scientific Lesson
Altered Body Image in Footwear Fitting: How Assumptions, AI Research and Poor Measurement Lead to the Wrong Shoe
America’s
An Introduction to Congenital Cardiac Defects
Anaesthetic Revision Cards for perioperative students
Anyone Can Be a Manager — But Not Every Manager Can Be a Leader
Aoraki/Mount Cook: Why New Zealand’s Highest Mountain Remains a Mountaineer’s Summit
Aortic Stenosis and Pulmonary Stenosis
Aortopulmonary Window
Asia
Austrialsia
Barefoot Shoes: Evolutionary Answer or Modern Footwear Fad?
Before It Disappears: War, World Heritage and the Case for Travelling Through the Middle East
Beyond Hydrostatic Head: Understanding Tent Flysheets, Fabrics and the Climate They Are Designed For
Beyond Kilimanjaro: Where Does Trekking End and Mountaineering Begin in East Africa?
Blue Babies
Cardiac Surgery
Check Your White Privilege? No — Check Your Assumptions
Clinical inspiration
Coarctation of the Aorta
Covid Pandemic Clinical Images
Cultural Appropriation, Cultural Appreciation and People Looking for Something to Be Angry About
Do You Really Need Gore-Tex for Kilimanjaro ?
Double Aortic Arch
Double Outlet Right Ventricle
Double-Lumen Endobronchial Tubes
Ebstein Anomaly
Endo Tracheal Tube cuffs, which is more effective negative or positive pressure testing?
Europe
Everest 1996 v 2026: Thirty Years of Lessons Learned?
Everest 1996: The Decisions That Led to Disaster. A timeline analysis of the deaths of Rob Hall and Scott Fischer
Everest as an Intensive Care Laboratory: What Caudwell Xtreme Everest Taught Us About Human Survival
Everest at a Crossroads: Access, Responsibility and the Ethics of the World’s Highest Mountain
Everest from North and South: An Unbiased Review of the Nepalese and Tibetan Approaches
Facilitation of Students. Practising Sellick’s manoeuver for Rapid Sequence Induction Anaesthesia.
Free Rescue or Personal Responsibility?The Growing Debate Over Mountain Rescue in the Alps
From Theatre Technician to Controlled Drug Practitioner
Gender Identity and Biological Reality in Anaesthesia
Has Human Resources Got It Wrong?
Hot Weather Clothing and Equipment
Human Factors in Healthcare
Icarus in a Lab: Hubris Manifest in the Age of AI
Inclusivity, Proportionality and Common Sense in the NHS
Interrupted Aortic Arch
Into the Death Zone, All the Gear and No Idea?
Jamaica, Reparations and the Problem of Historical Justice
Kilimanjaro 2025: The Ethos Remains
Klettersteig: Where Hiking Ends and Climbing Begins
Leadership, Work & Society
Major Aortopulmonary Collateral Arteries — MAPCAs
Map, Compass and UTM: Why Traditional Navigation Remains Irreplaceable
Medicine & Clinical Practice
Mont Blanc in 2026: When the Grade No Longer Describes the Risk
More Rescues, Fewer Deaths: What Is Really Happening in the Alps?
Mount Elbrus and Mont Blanc: When the Hardest Part of a Mountain Is Getting There
Mountain Medicine & Human Performance
Mountains & Mountaineering
North Africa After the Arab Spring: Two Models of Reconstruction
Original Artwork by Richard Purchon
Outdoor Equipment & Fieldcraft
Pain Is Weakness Leaving the Body!
Partial Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return
Patent Ductus Arteriosus — PDA ASD & VSD
Pink Babies
Plantar Fasciitis: Are Running Shoes Really the Answer?
Pop Art inspired work
Pulmonary Alveolar Proteinosis
Pulmonary Atresia and Tricuspid Atresia
Running Shoes: More Than a Colour and a Size
Service to the Country
Single-Ventricle Physiology Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome — HLHS
Situational Awareness in Healthcare
Spinal Cord Monitoring and Protection in Thoracoabdominal Aortic Dissection Surgery
Sporting World Champions
Stop Fitting the Ego: Why Your Climbing Shoes Don’t Need to Hurt
Stop Selling Shoe Sizes: Understanding the Foot, the Last and the Fit
Ten Millilitres of Air Is Not a Cuff Pressure
Tennis Elbow in Road Cycling: An Overlooked Overuse Injury
Tetralogy of Fallot
The AWFLisation of Western Europe
The Beauty of Maps and Mountains
The Doula Paradox: Support Without Accountability?
The Falklands, Historical Reparations and the Problem of Where History Begins
The Golden Hour Is a Luxury: Does Hospital-Based Trauma Training Adequately Prepare Clinicians for Prolonged Field Care?
The Mosquito: Humanity’s Smallest but Deadliest Adversary Malaria, Zika and the Global Battle Against Mosquito-Borne Disease
The Mountains of the Moon: Could the Rwenzori Become Africa’s Next Great Trekking Destination?
The Purchon Papers
The Right to Stick Things Up Your Arse
The Strange Death of the NHS
The Survival Gene: What Sherpa Physiology May Teach Intensive Care About Who Survives Hypoxia
The Tibetan Question: An Historical Analysis of Tibet Before and After Chinese Rule
There’s No Such Thing as Altitude Illness — I Know, I’ve Been Up Mont Blanc
Thoracic Surgery
Too High, Too Fast: Altitude Sickness, HACE, HAPE and the Case for Proper Acclimatisation
Total Anomalous Pulmonary Venous Return
Trail Runners on the Camino: Have We Confused Lightweight with Appropriate?
Transposition of the Great Arteries
Travel, Geography & Geopolitics
Truncus Arteriosus
Understanding Adult Cardiac Surgery
Understanding Outdoor Footwear
Understanding Rucksacks
Understanding Surgical Approaches to Adult Thoracic Surgery
Understanding the ECG
Waterproofs After PFAS: Gore-Tex, Pertex and the Changing Science of Staying Dry
When a University Stops Teaching Students How to Think
When Accountability Undermines Leadership
When an Accusation Becomes an Unwinnable Argument
When Did Social Justice Stop Asking for Equality and Start Demanding Agreement?
When Does Flipping Burgers Pay Better Than Caring for Patients?
When Feeling Threatened Becomes a Defence
When Foot Problems Meet Outdoor Footwear: Plantar Fasciitis, Morton’s Neuroma and the Importance of Correct Fit
When Rights Collide: Have Trans Rights Eclipsed Seventy Years of Women’s Equality?
When Social Media Turns Fiction Into Fact
When Society Stops Asking “Is It True?”
When the Grade No Longer Tells the Whole Story
When the Mountains Stop Freezing What the Alps Tell Us About the Future of the Greater Ranges
Zanzibar: Paradise on Earth?
“Flexible Bronchoscopy for Advanced airway management in Covid 19.”
“How Long Does It Last?” — The Not-So-Stupid Question About Camping Gas
“I’m Allergic to That!”
“Oh my god it’s a patient on ECMO!”