Search Results for “starving”
There are 5 results.
- You are currently searching All Media
Video:
in warrington, uk. a pensioner reportedly starved to death after her local council gave her a front door with no letterbox.
ivy allen, 79 - who had 10 children and 30 grandchildren - is thought to have been left penniless after her benefits book and giro cheques stopped arriving.
her emaciated body was found only when a housing official called at the one-bedroom council bungalow in warrington, cheshire, to check why she had not paid rent for six months.
the grandmother, who could not read or write, began having problems when her husband died in january, according to the daily mirror
care workers visited until april, but then she started to refuse help, the newspaper said.
two months later, she was admitted to hospital suffering malnutrition but apparently discharged herself without her family being informed.
the royal mail returned the benefits book and cheques to the pensions office after the front door was replaced and they were unable to deliver post.
but officials there reportedly failed to alert family or social workers that ivy had no income.
ivy's daughter sandra murphy, 42, told the mirror: "mum was always independent and social services were meant to be keeping an eye on her. they weren't.
"if we'd known her benefits were cut and the care visits had stopped, we would have been round there in a flash.''
warrington borough council said it had tried to put a letterbox on ivy's door but were not given access to carry out the work.
"people have a right to refuse help. while they are capable of making that decision, we are powerless to intervene,'' a spokeswoman told the paper.
the department of work and pensions is to launch an inquiry into the incident.
Video:
three mexicans who survived for nine months as their small fishing boat drifted across the pacific ocean tossed two other men overboard after they died of starvation during the journey, officials said on thursday.
the three were rescued last week by a trawler more than 5,000 miles from mexico's pacific coast fishing village of san blas, where they left for what was supposed to be a routine shark fishing trip last november.
stranded on the high seas for nine months, they stayed alive by eating raw birds and fish and drinking rain water, but the government said on thursday that two other men perished during the ordeal and were thrown overboard.
 |
| mexican fisherman jesus vidana is pictured in this undated family photo in his home town |
"at the start of this fishing trip, there were five people on board the boat. two of them would have died shortly afterward," miguel gutierrez, a senior official at mexico's foreign ministry, told reporters.
"they refused to eat, and that's why they died," he said, and rejected suggestions that the survivors may have eaten the bodies of their dead companions.
the story has captivated mexico but the survivors did not mention their dead companions when they were interviewed on wednesday by radio and television stations from the boat that rescued them near the marshall islands.
gutierrez said a survivor told a government official that one man died in january and the other in early february.
"it is natural that people who have spent nine months on the high seas, in the conditions they survived, would not have their complete story straight away," said foreign minister luis ernesto derbez.
a local government official in san blas said on thursday that no one there knew two other men were on board the very basic 25-foot (8-meter) fiberglass boat.
the survivors' families had given them up for dead, and were astonished to learn from news reports that they survived.
"now you see that miracles exist," said marina estrada, the aunt of one of the fishermen.
the three men were skinny and sunburned after their ordeal but are otherwise in good health.
the taiwanese fishing trawler that found them is expected to return to port in the marshall islands next monday. the survivors will then be given medical checks and flown home.
source
