When North Vancouver Dr. Shehla Ebrahim found herself administering emergency medical care to a fallen climber during an expedition to Mount Everest's base camp, she felt like she was exactly where she was meant to be.

The woman, who had been part of a separate expedition up the Himalayan peak, entered Ebrahim's camp at 14,000 feet above sea level, staggering and short of breath. Her Sherpa guide had planned to take her down a thousand feet; however, Ebrahim intervened, believing the woman was suffering from high altitude cerebral edema (HACE). "When you develop HACE, you need to (be taken) down immediately to a really low altitude," she says.

Ebrahim told the Sherpa that the woman would die unless he got her down at least 5,000 feet. However, as it was 7 p.m., they'd be unable to do so until morning. Luckily for the woman, Ebrahim's team had a gamow bag, a pressurized cylinder that simulates an altitude approximately 4,000 feet lower than reality.

Ebrahim, and the other physicians who happened to be at the camp, took turns monitoring the woman's breathing and oxygen levels over the course of the night. In the morning, she was helicoptered out and ended up surviving the ordeal.

"We basically saved her life," says Ebrahim. "There are some reasons when you do humanitarian work, serendipitously, things happen and I felt this was a very serendipitous moment because if we were not there, honestly, she would have died."

As Ebrahim's journey continued, three other members of her expedition also had to be helicoptered out, the result of exhaustion and altitude sickness. "There are some moments in your life which are unforgettable, which always live with you, and I think this is one of them," she says.

The 50-year-old owner and CEO of Westview's Afterglow, a physician-directed medi-spa, as well as a family physician with a part-time practice, opted to embark on the Everest journey last month as a means of giving thanks to her clients for their support over the last year and a half. Since January 2009, Ebrahim has been setting aside partial proceeds from Afterglow with the intention of forwarding the funds to the Central Asia Institute, an American non-profit organization co-founded by Greg Mortenson. The institute supports community-based education, especially for girls, in remote regions of northern Pakistan and Afghanistan. "I am from Pakistan and I feel like the only way that I can also help my country living so many thousands of miles away is to do this kind of contribution," she says.

Ebrahim wrote the organization a cheque for approximately $17,000.

This is Ebrahim's third major foray into humanitarian work. In 2002 she went to Tibet with a group of physicians to provide free medical care to nomads in Eastern Tibet.

She followed that journey up in 2006, by climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. Her team raised approximately $50,000 for B.C. Children's Hospital.

"My company has a mandate for social responsibility and I do believe in giving back," she says. "I think, living in North America, we have been so blessed and it is nice to just give back and not keep on taking all the time. It was quite humbling going to Tibet and summitting Kilimanjaro. It felt really good so this is one of the other humanitarian experiences that I wanted to do for a long time and I did it."

Ebrahim's Everest expedition came into fruition after she read Mortenson's book Three Cups of Tea, a 2006 book he penned with David Oliver Relin. The non-fiction work details how Mortenson came to be a humanitarian and found the Central Asia Institute. "I was very inspired after reading his book because his philosophy is basically to educate children in the northern and impoverished areas of Pakistan (and Afghanistan), particularly girls because girls are the future leaders," says Ebrahim.

Ebrahim, who moved from Pakistan to Vancouver more than 20 years ago, has seen the plight of people living in underserviced areas of her homeland firsthand, having travelled the country extensively.

"The villages in Pakistan are staggeringly poor," she says.

As of 2009, the 14-year-old Central Asia Institute had established 130 schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, providing education to more than 51,000 students, maintaining their focus on educating girls and empowering communities to take responsibility for their own futures.

After reading the book, Ebrahim's gut reaction was to just make a donation to Mortenson's charity; however, she felt compelled to do something more, hence her decision to set aside partial proceeds from her medi-spa business over the last 18 months. To pay tribute to her clients for their support, she opted to climb Mount Everest.

"(I thought) it would be a nice way to thank all the men and women on the North Shore who have made my business very successful and be nice to honour them and thank them because it's their contribution to my business that has made this all possible," she says.

She surprised herself by making it above the base camp at 17,300 feet to 18,500 feet. The entire trek encompassed 90 miles over a two-week period -- 10 days up and five days down -- in mid-April.

"It was a difficult trek," she says. "It was hard to breathe. . . Every step required a monumental effort. But I think in some ways, I just felt like there was belief in myself, the power of determination and the strength of endurance that enabled me to achieve this because I really wanted to do this."

Ebrahim plans to continue incorporating humanitarian work into her life and amping it up in future years.

"That's my goal, that's my vision," she says.

For more information on the Central Asia Institute, visit www.ikat.org.

emcphee@nsnews.com