A 59-year-old female climber from India, who had hoped to make history as the first woman in Asia with a pacemaker to climb Mount Everest, passed away on Thursday. She fell ill while at the base camp of the peak and tragically did not survive, news agency PTI reported.
Suzanne Leopoldina Jesus experienced physical challenges while participating in acclimatization activities at the Mt Everest base camp and was subsequently admitted to a hospital in Lukla town of Solukhumbu district. Tragically, Jesus passed away on Thursday, according to Yuvaraj Khatiwada, Director at the Tourism Department of Nepal.
According to Khatiwada, Suzanne, who had a pacemaker implanted, was instructed to give up her quest to reach the top of Mount Everest once it became clear that she was struggling to keep up with the required pace during the acclimatization exercise at base camp and faced difficulties with climbing.
Despite receiving advice to the contrary, Suzanne was determined to ascend the mountain that stood at a height of 8,848.86 metres. She reasoned that, having already paid the fee to obtain permission to climb the peak, she could not back down.
Dendi Sherpa, the organizer of the expedition, reported that Suzanne was airlifted to Lukla town and hospitalized after reaching a height of 5,800 meters above the Mount Everest base camp.
Sherpa mentioned that they had to use force to bring her back to Lukla, and they also hired a helicopter for her evacuation.
According to him, despite our advice to stop the climb five days earlier, Suzanne was determined to continue scaling Everest. It was discovered during the acclimatization process that she did not possess the necessary qualifications to proceed with the ascent.
Sherpa sent a letter to the Department of Tourism, stating that Mt. climbing was not feasible for Suzanne. It took her more than 5 hours to ascend to Crompton Point, which is a mere 250 meters from the base camp, on the Everest expedition.
According to Sherpa, climbers can typically cover the distance in 15-20 minutes. However, in Suzanne’s case, it took her five hours on the first attempt, six hours on the second attempt, and an entire 12 hours on the third attempt to reach the same point during the acclimatization exercise.