Dubai: Carlito Arenas was in transit in Dubai from Saudi Arabia in October when he was found unresponsive following a heart attack. Five months on, the Filipino expatriate is still in coma — alone in a foreign land and away from family and friends.
Arenas, 49, was flying to Manila for his annual vacation on October 5 last year when he had a cardiac arrest while at the airport in a stopover in Dubai.
According to his medical report, Arenas is in a post-cardiac arrest vegetative state and oxygen-dependent. His kidneys have failed, so he needs to be on dialysis twice a week.
“When I visited him in November, tears would well in his eyes whenever I talked to him. He couldn’t talk. He could only move his eyes,” Tommy, 48, Arenas’ brother told Gulf News in a phone interview from the Philippines.
Tommy flew to Dubai to visit Carlito at Dubai Hospital last year hoping he could take him home. But due to hospital bills and the cost of repatriating his brother, the office worker came home empty-handed three weeks later.
“When I bid him goodbye, he wouldn’t stop crying. He was as if telling me, although not verbally, that he just wanted to come home,” Tommy said.
Carlito worked as an aluminium fabricator for 23 years in Saudi Arabia before falling into coma. His family was dependent on his remittances to survive. Tommy, who works in an office in southern Luzon, is also hand-to-mouth.
When Tommy ran out of money in November, he was forced to go home leaving his brother behind. He sought the help of Rey Angulo, a Filipino social worker, to look over Carlito.
“What is peculiar in Carlito’s case is he was a transit passenger at Dubai Airport and he didn’t expect the attack. So his hospitalisation here is absolutely involuntary on his part,” Angulo told Gulf News during a visit to Carlito’s ward.
“This is a classic example of an overseas Filipino Worker being alone in a foreign land. He knows not a single soul here,” Angulo added.
As of March 2, Arenas’ hospital bills have reached Dh118,800. He can be flown home on a stretcher with a nurse-escort for Dh35,000 to Dh40,000.
“What I appreciate most is Dubai Hospital continues to take care of him,” Angulo said.
An official from Dubai Hospital said Angulo can take him home to be with his family. The bills can be paid later on. His stay at the hospital can further complicate his situation as he can acquire secondary infection.
When contacted, Philippine Consulate-General Paul Raymund Cortes said he is doing his best to help Arenas but his hands are tied.
“We have asked for financial assistance from the Department or Foreign Affairs, Manila pertinent to hospitalisation bills. We also asked for possible plane ticket, we’re still waiting for funding because the bill is huge, Dh100,000 or at least one million pesos,” Cortes told Gulf News.
“As far as our guidelines to the Assistance To Nationals (ATN) Fund is concerned, hospitalisation is not covered. We also sought help from their local government unit.”
Cortes said the ATN’s fund can be used for the legal cases, passport retrieval, plane fare for repatriation, typing services, and other police cases. Hospital bills, unfortunately, do not fall under any of them.
Angulo, who has become like family to Arenas, is hopeful help would come: “Carlito is most deserving of help because first, he is helpless. I still believe in miracles; I’ve already seen one.”
