US doctor dies near summit of Everest

Goal was to climb tallest peak on each of the seven continents

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — A global adventurer when he wasn’t seeing patients in small-town Alabama, Dr. Roland Yearwood recently left his rural home to face the same challenge that could have killed him two years ago: Scaling Mount Everest. This time, Everest won. Yearwood, a 50-yearold doctor who practiced medicine in Georgiana, Alabama, died near the summit of the world’s highest peak on Sunday, one of four people who Nepalese tourism officials said were killed on the mountain over the weekend.

Two years ago, the doctor survived a devastating earthquake that struck while he and dozens more were attempting to climb the mountain. Eighteen people were killed, although everyone in Yearwood’s group was safe.

Yearwood stayed behind after the 2015 quake to help provide medical care for people in the area, according to Patti Cook, administrator at Georgiana Medical Center, where he worked.

The father of two daughters was in the process of climbing the tallest peak on each of the seven continents, and Everest was the challenge this spring, according to a biography on the website of Georgiana Medical Center. He also liked to fly, dive and sail.

Yearwood was an oncall physician and also saw patients in a rural health clinic, she said.

He once saved a baby who nearly drowned and delivered a child who was three months premature, Cook’s statement said. Yearwood made house calls and personally provided transportation to patients when needed, she said.