Everest team doctor challenges Abenojar claims

The doctor of the 1st Philippine Mount Everest Expedition (FPMEE) team remains skeptical of Dale Abenojar’s claim that he was the first Filipino to reach the summit of Mount Everest ahead of celebrated climbers Leo Oracion and Erwin "Pastour" Emata of the team.

Dr. Ted Esguerra, one of the team’s five-member support group, was incredulous over reports that Abenojar and his 21-year-old Sherpa guide, Pasang Sherpa, were able to reach the summit despite the gangrene infection in their toes.

Further, he said, they waited several days before flying to Manila to seek medical treatment.

Oracion reached the summit on May 17 and Emata followed the next day. Abenojar, however, claims he reached the summit on May 15.

Abenojar and Pasang may have lied about suffering from gangrene to back Abenojar’s purported feat, Esguerra said.

"I want to meet his doctors who are treating him for gangrene. If that’s gangrene, the affected areas should have been amputated by now. Otherwise they should be dead," said Esguerra, a rescue doctor in the Philippine Coast Guard who is trained in high-altitude medicine.

The affected area should have been amputated early if gangrene had set in, Esguerra said. "If you’re not going to amputate it, septicemia will develop," he told The STAR.

Abenojar’s feat seems doubtful from a medical point of view, according to Esguerra. "They are sowing falsehoods. That doesn’t look good because people can be misled into thinking it’s that easy."

Esguerra added it was impossible for a climber already suffering pulmonary edemia, which causes bleeding in the lungs, to continue trekking up Everest.

"We heard that he (Abenojar) had pulmonary edemia during his climb, so how was he able to go on and climb to the top? That’s impossible, medically speaking," he said.

Esguerra disclosed that the FPMEE had made efforts to reach Elisabeth Howley, the acknowledged "chronicler" of Everest, regarding the supposed feat of Abenojar and were told that Abenojar’s claim was false.

Esguerra reiterated that Abenojar’s certificate — issued by the Mountaineering Association of Tibet of the Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China as proof of his claim — may have been falsified.

Esguerra added that the Sherpas who helped Abenojar in his quest could have been paid to back his claim. He said he wants a meeting with Abenojar to test his knowledge of the Everest climb.

"I want to meet him, ask him about his climb. He can’t fool me."

Reached for comment, Abenojar maintained that he has proof of his feat. "We will present it to the people in due time," he said.

"It’s saddening that Dr. Esguerra should talk that way. It’s also shameful if Pasang, Tshiring at Ramkrihsna (the Sherpas who helped Abenojar in his quest)… find out that our countrymen are talking about them like that," Abenojar said.

Abenojar said Esguerra may have already prejudged them and it may be difficult to convince him.

Abenojar and Pasang are at Cardinal Santos Medical Center in Greenhills, San Juan, for treatment. They expect their toes to be amputated.

One of Abenojar’s toes is infected while Pasang could lose all but one of his toes.

Robin Mendoza, a close friend who joined Abenojar in Kathmandu, Nepal to help him document his climb, said there is still a possibility that Pasang’s toes can be reconstructed to help him walk.

Asked to comment on Esguerra’s accusations, Mendoza said they have decided to answer them point by point later and avoid making statements that could inadvertently escalate the dispute into a quarrel.

"As I have said, even while we were still in Kathmandu, we will stand down and not let the doubts goad us to anger," Mendoza said.