Lucio Tan pays Abenojar a surprise visit

Tycoon Lucio Tan paid adventure sportsman Dale Abenojar a surprise visit yesterday morning at the Cardinal Santos Memorial Medical Center (CSMMC) in San Juan and gave him some welcome news: he would also pay for the hospital bills of Abenojar’s young Nepali Sherpa guide who lost all 10 toes to frostbite and gangrene on a quest to scale Mt. Everest.

Abenojar, 43, claims to have been the first Filipino to reach the summit of Mt. Everest, the world’s highest mountain, last month.

Tan’s latest act of kindness overwhelmed the cash-strapped Abenojar, who profusely thanked Tan for paying his and Pasang Dorchi Sherpa’s bills for their eight-day stay at the CSMMC.

The surprise visit by Tan, who controls flag carrier Philippine Airlines (PAL) and owns Asia Brewery and Fortune Tobacco, moved Abenojar to tears during a subsequent interview with reporters.

"I’ll forever be grateful to Dr. Lucio Tan for his generosity, for helping me get treatment as well as helping me keep a promise to a man who saved my life up on Mt. Everest," Abenojar told The STAR.

Tan, through his emissaries, informed Abenojar last week that he would pay for Abenojar’s medical expenses during his confinement at CSMMC for treatment of the gangrene infection in his left big toe.

Tan’s pledge of assistance stopped Abenojar and Pasang from transferring to the cheaper Philippine General Hospital (PGH) due to financial considerations.

While PGH is not lacking in skilled doctors, the transfer to PGH was seen as a difficult move for the two gangrene-infected mountaineers.

Before Tan provided financial aid, Abenojar said he and Pasang had to transfer to PGH to save on meager funds already depleted from Abenojar’s trip to Kathmandu, Nepal and his expedition to reach the summit of Everest.

Abenojar said he had to pawn his Range Rover to finance his trip to Nepal to fulfill a life-long dream of being the first Filipino to scale Everest. He said he augmented the funds with donations from friends and relatives who supported his dream.

It was learned that had Abenojar’s close friend, businessman JR Cruz, not agreed to buy Abenojar’s Range Rover on the night of March 31, Abenojar may not have been able go to Nepal on April 1 in a mad dash to beat two other climbing teams to the top of Mt. Everest just days later.

Abenojar said he and Tan met face-to-face at the office of Dr. Charles Chante, CSMMC hospital director, medical specialist and medical columnist of The STAR.

Abenojar said Tan congratulated him on his feat and called him a "hero." But Abenojar said the praise should not go to him, but to his Sherpa guides, especially Pasang, whose toes got frostbitten and infected with gangrene while guiding the solo climber up Everest.

"I said that I was not the hero. It was Pasang who was the hero because he saved my life twice and enabled me to go on and reach the summit," he said.

Abenojar and Pasang underwent surgery Friday night to amputate their gangrene-infected toes.

Pasang, who was first diagnosed as needing amputation of nine toes, wound up losing all of his toes after his right pinkie was also found to be infected with gangrene.

If Abenojar and Pasang’s gangrenous toes were not amputated, lethal septicemia — blood poisoning — would have set in, according to doctors.

Upon learning of Pasang’s predicament, Tan assured Abenojar that he would also pay for Pasang’s medical expenses.

During a 30-minute talk with the Tan, Abenojar said the tycoon related how he had also visited Tibet to climb several mountains at altitudes of up to 7,000 meters.

"He told me that some of his companions died during their climbs," Abenojar said.

He said he was ecstatic over Tan’s pledge to also help Pasang by paying for prosthetic toe replacements for Pasang to help him walk again and continue mountain climbing in the Himalayas, the world’s tallest mountain range.

So far, as proof of his claim, Abenojar has presented a certificate from the Mountaineering Association of Tibet of the Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China that declares he reached the Everest summit at 10:45 a.m. on April 15.

Foremost Mt. Everest historian and chronicler Elizabeth Howley also recently said she believed Abenojar’s claim of cresting the Everest summit was true after speaking to him about his climb and viewing Abenojar’s summit photographs.