Two Toronto doctors rescue lost 6-year-old boy on Mount Kilimanjaro

Howard Ovens and Bjug Borgundvaag, both Toronto emergency room physicians, are part of a team climbing Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for Mount Sinai Hospital.

They joined the 13 fundraisers, who raised more than $1.3 million for the hospital, to support the team medically.

After two days on the mountain, the doctors encountered a 6-year-old boy, dehydrated and wandering alone at 13,000 feet.

"Our arrival at Camp Karanga was marked by the excitement of finding a tiny lost 6 or 7 year old boy who three days ago had strayed from his village 2200m below. Amazingly, he survived 2 nights out alone and no wonder he looked a tad hypothermic. Our doctors checked him out and our members gave him food," Adventure Consultants leaders Mike Roberts and Brenda George wrote on the team's blog.

"We're all travelling around here and this little boy is walking around in a pair of torn pants with open-toed sandals and a sweatshirt over a t-shirt," David Cynamon, the lead climber, told the Toronto Star. "He was very cold."

Ovens and Borgundvaag quickly assessed the weak boy — surprisingly, he didn't have frostbite — and gave him hot water, fed him a gel high in electrolytes, and wrapped him in sleeping bags.

When the boy was strong enough, he told translators his name was Emmanuel. He had been sent up the mountain days earlier to cut grass for cattle. At some point, he became disoriented and had to spend to night without food or water in freezing temperatures on the mountain.

"He was pretty sleepy and tired but continuing to improve, so what we did was, rather than spend the night at altitude, we sent him to the bottom of the mountain," Cynamon said.

A porter carried the boy to a police station at the bottom of the mountain where local authorities will try to connect him with his family, the Toronto Star reports.

The climb to Mt. Kilimanjaro's summit typically takes five days. Ovens, Borgundvaag and the rest of the team are expected to reach the top today.