Woman Rescued After Being Left On Everest

Usha Bista Was Saved By Meagan McGrath Below The Mountain's Summit

(CBS)  Usha Bista nearly died on Mount Everest. The Nepalese mountain climber got sick about 2,000 feet below the summit and says her climbing partners kept going and wouldn't even leave her food and water.

But Meagan McGrath, a 29-year-old Canadian, saved Bista. Her heroics have now been honored by the Everest mountaineering community. She was on her way down from the summit last week when she came across Bista.

Bista, 22, is now recovering from her near-death experience. She now has a case of frostbite to show for her ordeal, but at the time she was suffering from an often lethal form of altitude sickness, a swelling of the brain called cerebral oedema.

"I was very concerned that she would die," McGrath told CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips. "I was not sure what I was going to do at that time. But, yeah, she was definitely deteriorating to the point of death, basically."

McGrath and two other climbers took Bista down to a camp where she could be treated by doctors.

The rescue of stricken climbers has become a controversial issue on Everest, where climbing the world's highest peak has become a popular activity. There have been cases where climbers have simply been left to die as others continued on to try to fulfill their once-in-a-lifetime dream. Bista, however, was lucky.

"I saved her life but she was also dying in my hands, too," McGrath said. "It was a very tenuous situation, where I did not have everything I needed to help her."

[dogsoul]

Honestly... while part of me is impressed with the fortitude & strength these climbers show in conquering Mount Everest - another side of me thinks, what idiots. I mean, it's one thing to venture out into space, or do as the early explorers did & trek thru the jungles, or perform some scientific antarctic expedition or SOMEthing that's founded in the furthering of mankind... but this? This seems more like a personal rush... like many climbers have said, why climb the mountain? Because it's there... Some of them even have spouses & children - others at least have friends & family that care about them... and to go about needlessly risking their lives, and the lives of potential rescue teams like that strikes me as wholly selfish...

[vgomez58]

It was cruel of those hikers to leave the woman defenseless, and without food or water. I'm sure they had given her up for dead. I don't know if I would have the heart to face her, if I were a snow team member,after hearing she survived anyway. And to forgive has to be "devine" for the woman that survived, in this case. I wish her well in her recovery.

[Tuuktalus]

This is a drug to these people. They are addicts and their addiction comes before family, friends and other climbers. Its sickening. Thank god for the climber(s) who saved this woman. If only more people were like that.

The real mountain to climb is raising a family successfully in a crazy world like ours.

[dogsoul]

...well think about it - if her fellow climbers were willing to risk their OWN lives for the glory & rush of claiming Mt. Everest - it's not much of a stretch to think they'd be willing to risk HER life so they could continue to pursue that thrill. Apparently, it's about putting everything else & everyone ONE else's concerns aside - friends, family... even your own safety in order to accomplish this goal - so why should it surprise anyone they'd be willing to abandon a fellow climber? Thank God for her sake another climber still had some perspective on the issue... at least while she was on her way down right? I heard a story a while back of the first woman to climb Everest - she was talking w/ her two young daughters on a sattelite phone from the top - everyone was celebrating her as some hero while I thought to myself... "what a selfish act" - and what do you know... she tried to do it AGAIN, and died... they tried to paint her as some kind of hero... hero? Heroes put the needs of others ahead of their own - she wouldn't even do that much for her own daughters, even after she had already come back alive the first time...

[ecuadoriana]

In my local paper this morning there is an article about Ken Noguchi who, starting in 2000, has climbed Mt Everest 5 times for the sole purpose of collecting & removing the close to 20,000 lbs of garbage that has ben left behind by these so called "thrill seekers". To me, they are simply morons whose only function is the maintenance of their egos, whereas Mr Noguchi is a true hero & a friend of the earth.

Leaving garbage behind- whether on a mountain, on the street, the playground, the beach, where ever- shows such disrespect for our precious planet. If someone really wants to impress me, they'll show care & respect for the earth & ALL of its inhabitants. Climbing a mountain means nothing if you trash it.

That Usha Bista's climbing partners left her to die so that they could "fulfill their dream" shows that they viewed her as nothing more than garbage to be left behind for someone else to clean up.

They should be charged with murder. And I hope that Ms Bista has learned a valuable lesson. Don't try to conquer the earth, but live with it, respect it & take care of it.

[bareemperor]

The urge to top a mountain is a selfish, personal rush. It is expensive and dangerous, and must be ranked with motorcycle racing and hunting as a risk-taker's folly. Thank goodness for Meagan McGrath.

[beadazzle]

I've heard so many stories like this and to me it makes me wonder what kind of people can do this to their own human race. Is it really such a big deal to reach the top of a mountain and leave someone to die on it and not have a care in the world about that person.

If you ask me they should be charged for attempted murder and so should anyone else who decides to leave a living human being on this planet to achieve their goals with out care of another person.

There should be laws enforced for climbers to take the responsibility for their actions when traveling in a group on a mountain climb.

Hearing things like this makes me sick. I'm glad that woman saved her,and I pray that the woman will think twice and about her family and friends and quite climbing,cause it's not worth a life.

[roger_inkart]

Everyone, including Bista, knows the risks involved here. I don't condone the climbers for not helping her, but she doesn't deserve this outpouring of sympathy. Climbers who rescue climbers place themselves at great risk too. Keep in mind most who perish on Everest do so on the way down.

[farmerbb]

How about someone publishing the names of the team members who left her to die on the mountain ? Not counting any who were in camps lower down the mountain, just those who continued to climb.... Simpler and easier to do that trying to charge them with something in a different country.....

[ajaxrose1]

Why is it supposed to be the responsibility of anyone else to save your butt when you intentionally put it in harm's way like that? It seems a little cold that the people she was with wouldn't help her out a little, but you know darned well she'd have done the same thing if it had been someone else in the party having problems. That's how it is, from what I understand. She (like many others) put herself in a life-threatening situation and then expected someone else to risk their life to save her butt. That's not okay. That's selfish.

[norshatakaha]

Human nature sure is primitive sometimes.

[mikealford3]

Climbing Everest, something I will never understand. People die there everyday, they know the risk when they go. This woman died doing what she wanted to do, how many of us will die that way? If men and/or women were meant to be on top of Mt. Everest it would either be flat or at least lower. Frankly that's what helicopters where made for. I cannot have sympathy for a person who chooses to climb a mountain that is high in elevation, low in oxygen with tempertures below freezing and dies doing it. More power to the mountain.

[mikealford3]

As an afterthought, if we were supposed to be on top of Mt. Everest, wouldn't NASA have put an obseratory there or perhaps Bush would have invaded. There ya go, maybe Osama Bin Laden is hiding up there. lol

Just a thought.

[sweetsher29]

Ok so what if people want to climb the *** mountain, it's still heartless of the others to continue their climb when their "friend" is dying. What jerks. I hope they find their bodies next!!