A physician's assistant from Edison, who was serving on the medical team for an expedition on Mt. Everest, has died in an avalanche triggered by the powerful Nepal earthquake.

Marisa Eve Girawong
Marisa Eve Girawong (Madison Mountaineering)
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Madison Mountaineering confirmed the death of Marisa Eve Girawong, the base camp doctor, on its website.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with Eve and her family and friends," wrote the Seattle-based mountain guide service.

Girawong's team was traveling from one camp to another when the avalanche struck according to Madison's statement. The company organizes climbs of international  and domestic peaks.

CBS New York also reported that Girawong is from Edison.

In a statement, East Orange General Hospital offered prayers for Girawong's family and the people of Nepal.

"East Orange General Hospital extends our deepest sympathy and prayers to the people of Nepal and the family of Marisa Eve Girawong who previously worked as a Physician Assistant in our Emergency Room," the statement said. "We are saddened by the loss of Marissa and the nearly 2,000 people who died as a result of this earthquake that left behind mass devastation and staggering levels of damage."

As of Monday morning, the death toll from the quake had risen past 3,700, with expectations that it would rise further as response teams reached other communities on the mountain side.

Girawong wrote on her Linkedin page that she had started working with Mountaineer this month. She graduated from Rutgers-Newark in 2009 from the school's College of Arts & Sciences, according to a post on the school's Facebook page. In 2012, she completed her medical training at John Stroger Hospital of Chicago, graduating with honors for Master of Medical Sciences & Physician Assistant studies, according to her bio on the Madison Mountaineering website.


Dan Fredinburg, a Google executive who described himself as an adventurer, was the second confirmed American victim of the  massive earthquake that struck Nepal on Saturday. Lawrence You, the company's director of privacy, posted online that Fredinburg was in Nepal with three other Google employees climbing Mount Everest. The other three are safe, he said.

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The Associated Press contributed to this report

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