Yesterday a friend of mine was told about a sick man (from the U.S.A ) had wandered into the///// church, my friend went there and found a guy very thing and very sick(also from the U.S.A.)he was 72 year old had lived here for 10 years and went back to the us for his mums 100 birthday, he came back to the philippines 2 weeks ago and had only 10th peso left. He was taken to silliman they had no room for him, he then took him to holy child the doctor seen him and said he may have aids and would need a private room and none was available , so he was then taken to the provincial only to be told they had no private room . So my friend took him back to the church and made him as comfortable as possible he died 2 hours later. The Dumaguete expats club have taken up his case , they have found his family in th US and now need a power attorney from them to take care of his buriel ect. His name was JOE CAIRNES can any one fill in the gaps? regards
A friend in need is a friend in deed, very noble of your friend Alex. Thanks for sharing this. May the gentleman who died rest in peace.
Yes, that is a very sad way for a life to end. It's also very heartening to know that someone cared enough to show the milk of human kindness during his final hours. Now however, the emotional and moral issues need to be put on the back burner and the practical issues come to the forefront. If the observation of the doctor at Holy Child is well founded, then an autopsy needs to be performed with regards to the possibility of Aids, although this may already have taken place. If the result is negative then all well and good - if positive then the authorities need to try and contact anyone with whom he may have had an intimate relationship with. It's also good that a group of expats have taken it upon themselves to contact his family, and I am assuming, rightly or wrongly, that this was done through the U.S. Embassy Manila. If this is not the case, then as much information as possible should be passed to the U.S. Consul, American Citizens Services Department on (632) 301-2000 extensions 2246/2567. Additionally, if Mr. Cairnes was a military veteran, the American Legion in Manila may assist with the burial. Their contact details are held on the Embassy website. Perhaps this information can be passed on to those who are kindly dealing with the final affairs of this departed soul.
Yes that would have been the best , The power of attorney came from his family in the U.S. Joe was cremated yesterday, cost was factor; imbalming 1000p a day min. 3 days to transport him to the crematorium 200p service and send his ashes to the USA total 34th peso . This points out to me that their a need for a expat support group in dumaguete. R.I.P
The US law might be different, but in other countries your club would have helped to destroy a body (evidence), which may or may not have spread a deadly disease. No private attorney would have the power to make that decision in most European countries to have it destroyed by a foreign club in a 3rd world country. Maybe the US embassy also does not care like others do. I was in 2006 working in Sumatra and there was a "may be" bird flu case of a Belgium citizen. A few days after his death he was also cremated. After the Belgium Embassy in Jakarta got notice that the body was burned already, (read: evidence destroyed), the sh*t hit the fan and those guys involved got a bad negligence case up their back. In most European countries a case like that becomes automatically an affair of the state, no matter what any family and their attorney says. You guys would have to deal with a negligence in many other countries and I highly doubt you are aware of that and nobody looked at the legal side of it. As a matter of fact, if he was really HIV positive anybody, who can put 1 and 1 together without passing 3, would think about his "maybe" victims and the way he may have gotten the virus. Therefore he/she/it/they should try to protect other living human beings in acting accordingly, instead of serving the family of a dead person, who might be involved in spreading a deadly disease. Anyway, I am sure Joe couldn't care less, may he rest in peace.
So possibly the "Club" should have just let the body hang around and rot instead of having it cremated? Would that not be considered as possibly spreading disease? I didn't read anywhere that a private attorney had any say in the decisions, the family made the decision that was best for them? Larry
Larry, "The power of attorney " was misinterpreted by me, probably lost in lacking my English skills. otherwise, of course the protection and maybe help of living human beings stands way higher than the shipping of a dead body. and like already said, a dead person with probably a deadly virus is in many countries of this world a case of the embassy no matter what the family wishes. As soon there might be an infection like suggested by a doctor of Joe, it is certainly the right step to deal with the embassy but not with the family and do what they want. Again that said, I don't know how the US is interested in their old citizens who might have sexual contact, received and spread a deadly virus. I know it surely for other countries and they are very interested to help and protect people who might have had contact with Joe, Having an maybe HIV infected "burned and shipped" in a few days, that is blind activism and only causes more issues for those unknown persons who might have received and spread the virus, while a negative test-result would relieve them. And to answer your question, yes I think it is totally wrong cremating him without any examination. That even leaving out any law and procedures applying to American citizens with (maybe) deadly infections, where I am not aware of. Again, I can only speak from my experience with laws and procedures with European countries.
Its funny but not one person put their hand up and said can we help, I was excepting many offers for help because of number of expats from the US live here, Black Abbot when you were in Sumarta im sure you would have many experts ready to give advice and support and would you have paid from your pocket. We had limited limited money and you have here long enough to now no one does nothing for nothing as i said before they wanted 1000p a to imbalming per day . I would like to hear how you would handled it if joe had fell on your lap,who would you have got to do the autopsy ? im sure we could all learn from your answer . The U.S Embassy although showed concern told us to do what his family wanted and thanked us . We did what we thought best and dont think we should be belted around the ears for our efforts.
The US embassy does not care for it's citizens when they are living, why should they care about them when they are dead? Who is going to pay for this "examination", embalming, storage and shipping the body half way around the world to someone who doesn't want it? Do you have ANY idea of the cost of same? Surely you yourself with your high moral principals would make a very large contribution, say P100,000, which will not even make a large dent in the cost, which would likely be 10 times that amount? Did you offer any help or support at all? Even just P500? If not, how dare you put down other people for doing what they can to help when you yourself did nothing. You should be ashamed of yourself! Larry
