soon the medical world took notice-- and so did a young geoff tabin. >> dr. anduk and came to work in nepal. >> whitaker: what did you think of him when he first showed up? >> dr. ruit: you know, i was a bit scared in the beginning, you know. he had tremendous energy. he would never get tired. energy in working, energy in eating, energy in drinking. energy in talking, you know? >> whitaker: it was like being hit by a human avalanche. fitting, since geoff tabin's passion was mountaineering, more than medicine. he'd raced through yale, oxford and harvard medical school, but he had made his name as one of the first people to climb the highest peak on every continent. he met dr. ruit and thought he'd found his next challenge. ruit was skeptical this frenetic young man had the same dedication to ophthalmology he had to adventure. >> dr. ruit: i sent him to an-- to a hospital in eastern part of nepal, in the middle of summer. and i said, "he's not going to survive there." >> dr. tabin: during the summer, in the monsoon, it's quite oppressive. it's sort of 100°, 105,