Finnish woman's relative shocked to hear of coma

Dubai: A cousin of a comatose 61-year-old Finnish woman, abandoned at Dubai Hospital for almost five years, was shocked to discover her relative was still alive after years of silence.

Gulf News reported on August 6 that Anna Leena Mirjami Agnew, known as Minna to her family and friends, suffered a heart attack in January 2004, while in Dubai with her husband.

She was taken to Dubai Hospital, where she slipped into a coma. Her husband told medical staff he was leaving for Saudi Arabia, where they were living, to arrange for her repatriation but never returned.

Merja Magnusson, Anna's first cousin, told Gulf News in a telephone interview from Sweden that she was dismayed to learn of Anna's sad state.

"I was horrified. I had heard three or four years ago that she was ill and in a coma in Dubai, but then I thought she had died because we had not heard anything about her," she said.

She said she was close to Anna when they were younger, spending three months with Anna, her husband and her then one-year-old son at Anna's home in Cornwall, England.

The last time Merja saw Anna was in Finland about 20 years ago. She said Anna was visiting her relatives with her new husband, British national David Agnew. They lost touch with each other after that visit as life got in the way - Anna moving to Saudi Arabia with her husband and Merja to Sweden with her husband.

Merja said she was surprised to learn that the man she met in Finland two decades ago could leave his wife alone in a hospital for almost five years.

"He was a kind man. I liked him. I don't know what happened to their lives in Saudi Arabia; maybe they had problems in their marriage later on," she said, adding she could not understand how Anna's son could abandon his mother as well.

Anna's condition is listed as stable, although doctors at Dubai Hospital do not expect her to wake up from her semi-vegetative state. Despite being technically conscious, she has no awareness of her surroundings. Doctors at the hospital said Anna could live for years in this state, depending on her care.

But Anna will die one day, a day that worries Merja.

The 62-year-old mother of two said she did not like to think about Anna dying alone in a foreign country, without any family members with her.

"I'm willing to come [to Dubai] to visit Anna, talk to her and see who's taking care of her.

"But I can't. It costs too much money," she said. She appealed for help to bring Anna home.