BajaNomad

HEADS UP-

lizard lips - 2-9-2024 at 11:20 AM

As some of you know I am and have been a PI for 56 years. My Dad was a PI when I was born and he had an excellent reputation in LA so we worked on many high profile cases.

After my last serial murder investigation 36 years ago I made the move to Baja, met my Mexican wife here and haven't left.

I then started working on life insurance investigations everywhere but in the US. I have now worked in 110 different countries. Its been a wild ride going to 4 continents in a few weeks then returning home and I have done this for quite awhile. Since Covid I don't travel that much anymore so its all good.

I have worked many cases in Cabo but this last one I worked this week has me extremely upset.

A 69 year old man was staying with his wife at their time share close to downtown and he decided to go for a walk in the morning. When he returned he fell ill and sat down close to the entry way of his residence. He was having a heart attack.

Many people came to help including a registered nurse from New York and she was providing CPR for quite awhile but he had passed and there was no reviving him.

An ambulance was called and when they got there they also took his vitals but it was obvious he passed. The workers from this privately owned ambulance company loaded him on board and drove him to a certain hospital where the wife was charged $9,500 US dollars to attempt to revive him. Now this has been more than 45 minutes since the RN finished working on him and found no vitals.

Workers from Semefo (local morgue( came to the hospital and retrieved his body and took him back to the morgue were an autopsy was performed. It was then proven that he died of a fatal heart attack.

If this man had died in a hospital then there would be no autopsy, according to Mexican Law, because the cause of death would have been recorded at the hospital by the treating physician. This in it self leads me to believe that the hospital did not want to be responsible legally for providing false information but they still billed the wife!

I obtained a copy of the medical records from the hospital and these records recorded that he had a slight heart beat? $9500 hundred dollars for absolutely nothing.

About 1 year ago I was assigned another claim in Cabo where a 35 year old man who was a personal trainer, his wife and three young daughters, were staying in a hotel also downtown. The man was working out in the gym and his wife told him she was going to take his daughters on a long walk.

When the wife returned to their room she found her husband in bed and he was cold to the touch and no vital signs. She called the front desk and an ambulance arrived about 30 minutes later. The hotel physician also came to the room and there was nothing he could do and he told me by the time he arrived at the room it appeared he had been dead for at least 2 hours.

This privately owned ambulance took the deceased to the same hospital where according to them they attempted to revive him but he had died.

The wife was charged $14,950 US Dollars by the hospital!!!

I have had a few others that these hospitals have charged Americans and foreign travelers thousands for absolutely nothing.

This has also happened in Cancun, Vallarta, Playa del Carmen and a few other cities where foreigners travel to.

It appears that these ambulance companies get a commission for their part in this horrible practice and these hospitals get the bulk of the money paid by a distressed family member.

I have informed the Ministerio Publico in Cabo as well as the city tourism department and followed up with phone calls to no avail.

Be extra careful if you have a similar experience and another bit of advise is to contact the US Consulate and try and obtain information as to a hospital in the city your in that has not received complaints such as these and is a very good qualified medical facility. This also goes for an injury you may have and need medical help. DO NOT TRUST AMBULANCE DRIVERS TO TAKE YOUR LOVED ONES TO A HOSPITAL OF THEIR CHOICE!!!

I am not going to disclose the name of the hospital or the name of the ambulance company because Im sure they may attempt to file some kind of slander on me and I really don't need this.

mtgoat666 - 2-9-2024 at 12:01 PM

Quote: Originally posted by lizard lips  


I am not going to disclose the name of the hospital or the name of the ambulance company because Im sure they may attempt to file some kind of slander on me and I really don't need this.



We need strong people to soeak the truth.

How will we protect the next victim?

Corruption on top of tragedy!

AKgringo - 2-9-2024 at 12:03 PM

Thank you for sharing this information. My sincere hope is that it is never useful to me!

[Edited on 2-9-2024 by AKgringo]

David K - 2-9-2024 at 01:03 PM

Thanks LL... You do good work!!
I will try to not die in a Mexican beach resort.

If there is any kind of advanced precautions, like air ambulance or legal aid, that can have the final say on time of death or prevent being driven to such hospitals, after death, let us know.

Bajazly - 2-9-2024 at 09:09 PM

Lesson learned, do go to or hang around Cabo or gringo chit holes in Mexico.

BajaBlanca - 2-10-2024 at 07:18 AM

This is so so so awful. OMG

4x4abc - 2-10-2024 at 11:37 AM

hospitals in tourist hot spots are built by deep pocket investors just to fleece tourists.
Had to go to one on Cabo San Lucas some years back. Needed an MRI and no such machine was available in La Paz.
They quoted me $2,000. When they recorded my personal data they said "OH, you are a loccal resident." The fee dropped to $800.
I had some time to kill and talked to the staff why they would have such fancy hospital in Cabo.
Because every cruise ship brings in at least 50 patients and they can charge them almost anything they want.
Too many tourists are already a plague - the leeches that consequently appear are hell.

surabi - 2-10-2024 at 01:55 PM

Calling an ambulance when someone is already obviously dead is the wrong thing to do in Mexico. You call the police, who have to make a report, then the coroner comes to pick up the body when the police are done.

Santiago - 2-11-2024 at 07:50 AM

Quote: Originally posted by surabi  
Calling an ambulance when someone is already obviously dead is the wrong thing to do in Mexico. You call the police, who have to make a report, then the coroner comes to pick up the body when the police are done.


1. How much do you have to pay the coroner to get the body?
2. What if you simply refuse to pay the hospital and go home? Now they're stuck with body. Release price should drop quickly?
3. What if the departed has a world-wide cremation service/policy. Would they pay the bribe to get the body to a local crematory?

bill erhardt - 2-11-2024 at 09:34 AM

So far from God. So close to the United States.
The practice described here of charging exorbitant fees for efforts to revive corpses has long been standard procedure in many hospitals north of the border, although the role of ambulance services less pronounced.

thebajarunner - 2-11-2024 at 08:53 PM

Just be happy it is not a Muslim country
My former brother in law died on a flight into Jeddah last year.
No cremation in that part of the world
Which was always his wish, his stipulated desire in his will

So, for ten grand his stiff was shipped back to Seattle where they whisked it off to the ovens and finished his term here on earth.

surfhat - 2-12-2024 at 01:58 PM

Lizard Lips, thanks for your good work on helping others going through the worst of times.

I recall years ago that you used to catch some flak on this forum from a few. It must be a new day! Let it last and last.

Sort of a side topic, but one can now designate their remains to become food for plants of your choice and all kinds. Human composting.

The energy it takes for cremation, which had been my thought for a few years, now takes a back seat to feeding mother earth in as non-toxic a way as possible.

Feed a tree. Sounds like a better result to me. Beats a hole in the ground to become worm food or expending a lot of natural gas to reduce our remains to dust which we end up tossing into the wind, hopefully upwind when one does, haha, or leaving it on a mantle.

Human compositing. Discuss among yourselves and let's see where this novel idea goes with all the characters we have here getting close to their end times, including myself. I am lucky to have good genes so hoping to keep on, keeping on for another decade or two.

I wish the same for all here, good genes or not.

surabi - 2-14-2024 at 04:38 PM

Aside from willing one's body parts to be used for medical transplants, it's always seemed odd to me that anyone would care what happened to their dead body, i.e. specify burial or cremation. It's not like it actually matters or you'll be around to know about what happens.

I'd be fine with being used as plant fertilizer, aka human compost. Seems ridiculous to spend thousands of dollars on burial plots, caskets, undertakers, or cremation and urns, when that money can help out the living.

(I'm not putting down someone trying to honor the stated wishes of the departed, though)

[Edited on 2-14-2024 by surabi]

Don Pisto - 2-14-2024 at 05:16 PM

Quote: Originally posted by surabi  
Aside from willing one's body parts to be used for medical transplants, it's always seemed odd to me that anyone would care what happened to their dead body, i.e. specify burial or cremation. It's not like it actually matters or you'll be around to know about what happens.

I'd be fine with being used as plant fertilizer, aka human compost. Seems ridiculous to spend thousands of dollars on burial plots, caskets, undertakers, or cremation and urns, when that money can help out the living.

(I'm not putting down someone trying to honor the stated wishes of the departed, though)

[Edited on 2-14-2024 by surabi]


sneak your ashes into JZ's Fruit Loops?

bajaric - 2-14-2024 at 07:21 PM

funny!

Regarding the original post, I don't really see the issue here. I would think that if a person collapses on the front steps of a hotel it would be appropriate to call an ambulance and take them to a hospital. Hospitals are equipped with sophisticated equipment that could potentially revive them, unlike a nurse or a "hotel physician" crouched over a body on the sidewalk feeling for a pulse. For 9 grand it would be money well spent. Perhaps a little expensive by Mexican standards but in the US that would barely cover a visit to the emergency room with a case of the flue, much less a trip to intensive care, and insurance might cover it anyway.

lizard lips - 3-1-2024 at 02:45 PM

funny!

Regarding the original post, I don't really see the issue here. I would think that if a person collapses on the front steps of a hotel it would be appropriate to call an ambulance and take them to a hospital. Hospitals are equipped with sophisticated equipment that could potentially revive them, unlike a nurse or a "hotel physician" crouched over a body on the sidewalk feeling for a pulse. For 9 grand it would be money well spent. Perhaps a little expensive by Mexican standards but in the US that would barely cover a visit to the emergency room with a case of the flue, much less a trip to intensive care, and insurance might cover it anyway.

Bajaric- I don't find anything funny about this at all...As I posted a registered nurse and others at the scene attempted to revive him but he had died and there was no bringing him back. There is no sophisticated medical equipment that I know of to bring back someone from the dead especially after at least 20 minutes...What should have happened was that the morgue should have been called by the ambulance to take his body back to the morgue! Dead is dead and why you would find this amusing is beyond me and whats worse is you don't see an issue with what I wrote. What happened by the ambulance driver and the hospital was right out theft. I hope this doesn't happen to one of your family members.

surabi - 3-1-2024 at 03:20 PM

Quote: Originally posted by lizard lips  


Dead is dead


Not necessarily.
https://www.businessinsider.com/dead-person-alive-woke-up-do...

And Bajaric wasn't referring to the story of this man's death and the family's expereience as funny- he was responding to the post just above his.

windgrrl - 3-1-2024 at 06:31 PM

There may be a matter of who can legally pronounce that death has occurred and who may issue a death certificate in Mexico. If a doctor is required to sign an document, then ambulance attendants may not have the authority to do anything other than transport to a hospital when death has occurred and may be subject to their employers policy and procedures. Insurance company requirements for documentation, the need for an autopsy, etc., may be factors influencing the way the time after death is managed.

This is an important “heads up” and thank you for the opportunity to ponder it.

bajaric - 3-2-2024 at 10:28 AM

In the Victorian era a man invented a "safety coffin" to address the popular concern of being buried alive:

Dr. Taberger, born on October 18, 1787, dedicated himself to finding a solution to ensure that those mistakenly pronounced dead could escape their earthly prison. In 1829, his invention finally took shape. The Safety Coffin featured various mechanisms, such as a tube connecting the coffin to the surface to allow for the circulation of air and the ringing of a bell in case of emergencies. This invention was nothing short of revolutionary, aiming to alleviate the Victorian fear that plagued the minds of countless individuals.

🏰 The first recorded use of the "Buried Alive" Safety Coffin occurred in the small village of Schnaittach, Bavaria, on July 5, 1822. A young woman named Philomena Franz tragically fell victim to a mysterious illness. Thinking she was deceased, she was promptly buried in the local cemetery. However, Philomena’s sorrowful fate was reversed when the Safety Coffin’s ingenious bell system rang out from beneath the ground.

🔔 The miraculous incident spread like wildfire, igniting a wave of interest in Dr. Taberger’s creation. Soon, orders for the Safety Coffin began pouring in from all corners of the globe. From London to New York, people clamored to secure their chance at escaping the clutches of premature burial.

lizard lips - 3-2-2024 at 12:47 PM

I respect all of your opinions. I wasn't there.

This is what makes this forum so good......