Other news stories

Military home page

A DOCTOR yesterday called for endurance marches at Sandhurst - the Army's officer training academy - to be banned after a cadet died from heat exhaustion.

Dr Alan Porter said: 'The training exercise responsible for heat illness is not only irrelevant, but also foolhardy and irresponsible.'

The retired GP, who has studied the problem of exertional heat illness (EHI) for 15 years, said Army instructors seemed unaware that cadets who lagged behind or collapsed during an exercise were suffering from 'an extreme medical emergency' that could prove fatal.

'It is a situation akin to drowning and demands immediate action in the field,' said Dr Porter, who voices his concerns in The Lancet medical journal. He spoke out over the tragedy of 23-year-old Graham Holmes, who collapsed with heat exhaustion after a seven-mile exercise in which running was alternated with fast marching, followed by an assault course. He died later in hospital.

The cadet, who was dressed in a double layer of battle fatigue clothing weighing almost 42lb, had been healthy but had suffered a previous episode of heat illness. Within two weeks of his death in July 1998 one other cadet with EHI was admitted to a hosipital intensive care unit and four others were admitted for observation. An inquest jury last June returned a verdict of accidental death on cadet Holmes. But Dr Porter blamed the training regime
at Sandhurst and said it still appeared to be endangering cadets.

Dr Porter, who lives nearby in Camberley, Surrey, said his research into
EHI revealed that the U.S. and Israeli armies had a central system of notification for heat illness unlike the British Army.

He claimed there had been a persitent problem at Sandhurst which was not reflected in the inquest verdict on Cadet Holmes. Dr Porter pointed out that the cadet's collapse was not caused by dehydration - the weather at the time was not excessively hot - but by the 'enormous heatload generated and the failure of sweat to evaporate as a result of the heavy clothing'.

Cadet Holmes's father Francis said yesterday; 'I haven't yet seen this report, but if it stops any other cadet from dying in a similar way then it is a good thing.'

The Defence Ministry said an inquiry into cadet Holmes's death had produced 17 recommendations which had been adopted.