Indian Female Mountaineer dies at Everest Base Camp after falling ill.
A 59-year-old Indian Mountaineer who was attempting to break a new world record by becoming Asia’s first woman on a pacemaker to conquer Mt Everest died on Thursday after becoming ill at the world’s highest peak’s base camp in Nepal.
Suzanne Leopoldina Jesus was admitted to a hospital in the Solukhumbu region of Lukla after experiencing difficulty during acclimatization exercises at the Mt Everest base camp, and died on Thursday, according to Yuvaraj Khatiwada, Director of Nepal’s Tourism Department.
Mr. Khatiwada stated that Suzanne, who was fitted with a pacemaker, was urged to abort her attempt to summit Mt Everest after failing to maintain a normal speed during the acclimatization exercise at base camp and showing trouble rising.
Suzanne flatly disregarded the advice, claiming that she needed to climb the 8,848.86-meter-high summit because she had already paid the cost for obtaining authorization to do so.
“Suzanne, who had climbed up to 5,800 metres, a little above the Mt Everest base camp, was forcibly airlifted on Wednesday evening to Lukla town and was admitted to a hospital for treatment,” said Dendi Sherpa, Chairman of Glacier Himalayan Trek, the expedition organizer.
“We had to take her back to Lukla forcibly,” Sherpa said, adding that they hired a helicopter to evacuate her.
“We had told her to abandon the climb five days ago, but she was committed to ascending Everest,” he said, adding that it was found during the acclimatization that Suzanne was not qualified for further ascending the mountain.
Sherpa also filed a statement to the Department of Tourism stating that Suzanne was unable to ascend Mt.
Everest since it took her more than 5 hours to reach Crompton Point, which is only 250 metres long.
Climbers typically cover the distance in 15 to 20 minutes, but Suzanne took five hours on the first attempt, six hours on the second, and 12 hours on the third to reach the location during the acclimatization exercise, according to Sherpa.
“However, she wanted to set a new world record by becoming the first Asian woman to summit Everest with a pacemaker,” he said, adding that she was having difficulties in her throat and could not even swallow food easily.
Suzanne’s body was flown to Kathmandu on Thursday afternoon and taken to Tribhuvan University Teaching Hospital at Maharajgunj municipality for postmortem, Sherpa said.
Her family members were notified and were scheduled to arrive in Kathmandu on Friday evening.
As Indian Mountaineer dies at Everest Base Camp after falling critically ill, earlier, a Chinese climber died while ascending Mt Everest on Thursday morning, bringing the season’s death toll to eight.
Four Sherpa climbers, an American doctor, and a Moldovan climber had died earlier on Everest.
Also read: Samina Baig becomes first Pakistani woman to scale savage K2
