Best Posts in Thread: Richard Heck dies in Manila

I suffer from diabetes and there are times I don't think that well. It has something to do with high levels of sugar in my blood and all the medication I take. Factor in my love for a cold pint now and then. I am fortunate because I have g/f who helps take care of me. However, I would like to travel to Canada and get a really good checkup. I have spoke with a Doctor who specializes in Diabetes and had all kinds of tests done. However, I am still not convinced I am taking all the meds I require.

Nobody who is not feeling well wants to spend time sitting in a hospital here in the Philippines, as you usually have to endure the heat and humidity. I can understand this man wanting to return to the USA perhaps for medical attention. The problem for me returning to Canada is I no longer have family there. I would have to consider staying in a very expensive hotel for who knows how long. Any short term rentals are expensive in Canada. I also factor in the long trip back home and how I would be able to endure it.

In addition, there is airfare to consider and the long trip back home. Airfare is high and I have seldom seen discounts for seniors and this is true with hotel accommodation. As you lose your health you make decisions that are not always in your best interest.

Factor in Canadian policy regarding expats that stipulates once you have been away from Canadian soil for over 6 months you no longer have Canadian residency. This means that you if you return to Canada you are no eligible for medical services until you have stayed for 6 months! Not good if you require immediate medical attention!

All of this does not excuse this man from being refused from hospital when he was in dire need. Which begs the question, how many people do they reject on a monthly basis? Here in the Philippines it all is about money. Lack of money will close doors and lots of money will open them!

 

Why did they take him to a private hospital then?

Government needs to provide for services which the public won't provide. Look around, the Philippines doesn't have much money for public services. I have a buddy who got emergency surgery on a wooden bench.

It's a bit of a dilemma. People come here for a cheaper cost of living (among other things) while in retirement. Yet retirement is the time during which you will most likely need good medical care. It's a gamble.

This guy was still relatively privileged. We read this article about him. How many locals dies in Manila not even attempting to go to the hospital for life saving care knowing they won't receive it? How many people are going through the dump right now to try to survive?

The other story is that he wanted to go back home but couldn't for some reason. That's another gamble people take by coming here without a plan to get back. Somehow they get stuck.

I wonder what he does with his money? Maybe Manila is way more expensive, but you can live pretty d*mn well on a pension of $2500 in Dumaguete. It goes fast, but there is no ceiling to burning through cash. A pension of $2500 is very good here if you can constrain your spending.

 

The work of this man was given to the world to use to better itself.

His reward? 2,500 pension and a shove out into a casket from the hospital denying him care.

Shades of Tesla. How very sad and disturbing.

Breaks my heart to read of this.

May he finally be able to RIP.

nwlivewire

 

Rappler.com
Published 12:47 PM, October 12, 2015
Updated 1:38 PM, October 12, 2015


RICHARD HECK. Richard Fred Heck, awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2010, at his Nobel lecture in Stockholm University. Image from Wikipedia User BloodIce.

MANILA, Philippines – Nobel laureate chemist Richard Heck died in Manila on Saturday, October 10, following a bout of severe vomiting earlier in the week, Reuters reports. He was 84.

Heck won the 2010 Nobel Prize in chemistry, along with Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki, for inventing new ways to bind carbon atoms.

The results were used in researcher for combating cancer and producing thin computer screens.

According to the official Nobel Prize website, Heck's prize motivation was "for palladium-catalyzed cross couplings in organic synthesis."

Heck developed work on palladium as a catalyst – known as the Heck reaction – in the 1960s and early 1970s. Variants of the same process came about from Negishi and Suzuki’s work in the late 1970s.

Heck's death

Despite earning a Nobel Prize in chemistry, illnesses left Heck surviving on a monthly pension of $2,500.

Two personal nurses took turns caring for Heck during the past year, according to a report from GMA News.

One of the nurses, Jane Rose Pido, said Heck was rushed to a private hospital due to severe vomiting. Heck, however, was reportedly turned away due to unpaid bills.

Of being turned away, Pido told GMA News, "It was painful to see, that the man was fighting for his life but he was left to die, because he did not have money. How could it end up like that? We didn't know which hospital to take him to, so much time was lost. He could have been revived."

Forced to take Heck to a public hospital, Pido said his vital signs deteriorated rapidly, until he died.

Speaking of the Nobel laureate, Pido said the American always talked of going back to the US. "We nearly fought," she said, "because he was insisting that he wanted to go back to the US."

"He would get his walker, walk outside the house and wait for a taxi, and he would say he was going to the airport to return to the US," GMA News quoted Pido as saying.

Relatives of Heck's wife, Socorro Nardo-Heck, said, however, that he had no family abroad.

 

For sure.

Many ex-pats do not have family back in their home country - or have family they have any connection with.

This is a more common situation than one might think - whether they be elder ex-pats living abroad, or elders still living in their home countries.

Having the "rainy day" fund - and being able to know when to pull the trigger to use it - means being able to have a serious reality check with oneself in advance of a situation occurring.

I myself, don't like to think about this. I hope I just die in my sleep and get it over with (die) quickly.

But I now see that it is important to think and plan ahead - just in case I end up having a slower, more drawn-out departure phase.

Or end up dying alone.

It's quite coincidental, but yesterday (Sunday), the NY Times came out with an article. It's lengthy - but coincides a bit to Mr. Heck's situation, and/or to other single people.

If you have time to read this article, "The Lonely Death of George Bell", you may be surprised at what happens along the way....

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/18/nyregion/dying-alone-in-new-york-city.html?_r=0

V/R,
nwlivewire

 

He does look content in this photo.

I hope nothing of ill-will was occurring to him in his last days.

But the article did leave me wondering about this concern of him being used as a "cash cow" by others not his wife.

Elder abuse in the US - whether it be simple neglect, or financial "mismanagement", is more common than one thinks. Seniors can get taken advantage of by surviving family members - even from home health care workers. A friend of mine volunteers as an Ombudsman for seniors who are in health care systems, and has told me several stories of where this does occur.

The high costs of medical care and him being turned away - it makes a case for having some money saved back to return to one's home country should one require health care/home health care that can't be obtained in the Philippines (assuming this care CAN be obtained in one's home country).

Again, the case of this man is a sad and disturbing situation.

I think there may be some lessons to be learned from this - perhaps having a back-up plan if things go "south".

nwlivewire

 

Makes me wonder if his at-home person (or persons) was milking him dry....

84 years old. Wonder if he was a bit brain-tired and was taken advantage of....