New Jersey woman among dead in massive Nepal quake

A 28-year-old New Jersey native who was working in Nepal has been identified as one of the victims of the fatal earthquake this weekend that took 2,400 lives.

Marisa Eve Girawong, a physician’s assistant who was working with a mountaineering organization, was identified as a victim by her employer, Seattle-based Madison Mountaineering. She worked as a Base Camp Doctor at their Everest / Lhotse camp.

“She was quite beloved by our entire team,” said Kurt Hunter, the company’s co-founder and chief technology officer, in a telephone interview on Sunday.

“We’re deeply saddened by her loss.”

More than a dozen people died in the avalanche set off by the 7.9-magnitude earthquake.

“It is with deep sorrow and profound grief that we can confirm the loss of our Everest/Lhotse base camp doctor, Marisa Eve Girawong,” the company posted on their blog. “Eve perished in the aftermath of the avalanche that struck the base camp area following the devastating Nepal earthquake earlier today. Our thoughts and prayers are with Eve and her family and friends.”

Girawong, had posted on her Facebook just hours before the earthquake set off the avalanche that she was craving sushi.

“Day 28 on this arduous journey , snow is falling & my food cravings are at an all time high…Is a crunchy spicy tuna roll with eel sauce too much to ask for?” she wrote.

The Edison, New Jersey native had graduated from Rutgers University.

According to her bio on Madison Mountaineering, Girawong was a physician’s assistant working in a Level 1 Emergency Room with a focus on trauma and wilderness medicine.

In 2012 she completed her medical training at John Stroger Hospital of Chicago and at the time of her death was studying for a second Master’s degree and postgraduate diploma in mountain medicine at the University of Leicester.

According to the online bio, Girawong was an avid mountainer and rock climber who had been specializing expedition medicine since 2013.

At this time more than 2,400 deaths have been reported in the wake of the Nepal earthquake.

A second American killed was Dan Fredinburg, a veteran Google Inc executive, who served most recently as head of privacy at Google X, a research division at the Mountain View, California-based technology company.

Fredinburg was climbing the world’s tallest peak with three other Google employees when the avalanche struck. None of his colleagues were injured, a company official said.

Information about a third American killed was not immediately available.

Additional reporting by Reuters