The Tribune

By LEANDRA ROLLE


Tribune Chief Reporter


lrolle@tribunemedia.net

A CANADIAN woman said she was forced to sit on a flight with her husband’s body at her feet after it was transported from Exuma in “green garbage bags”, describing the aftermath of his sudden death while on holiday in January as traumatic and undignified.

Ann Martell, of Ontario, said she is now in therapy and taking medication as she copes with what she described as one of the most difficult experiences of her life. She has contacted police seeking a copy of their report into her husband’s death and shared correspondence sent to the Commissioner of Police with this newspaper. Commissioner Shanta Knowles did not respond to requests for comment up to press time.

Mrs Martell and her husband, Gerry, who had been married for more than 30 years, travelled to Staniel Cay on January 16 for a three-day trip to celebrate his 70th birthday. The trip took a tragic turn on the second day.

She said the couple were on a boat tour and swimming near a cave when she saw her husband in distress, clinging to an orange buoy provided by others nearby. His last words were, “help me, I’m dying,” before he lost consciousness.

A yacht captain launched a small boat, brought him aboard and rushed him to shore. During the journey, Mrs Martell said her husband appeared to be having seizures and may have suffered a brain bleed.

On shore, a doctor who was at the marina attempted CPR, but he could not be revived. Mrs Martell said she was then informed that her husband had died.

She said the events that followed compounded her trauma. Her husband’s body was placed in a medical trailer, and she was told to gather her belongings, get money and prepare to leave before dark because there was nowhere to store the body.

“I was given very little time to call family, to be with my husband, to say my goodbyes,” she said. “All I remember is somebody yelling at me and saying: ‘You have to get $60,000, or Medevac won’t come’ and then the next breath, it was ‘Oh, you have to get 6,000’ and we have to get him out of here. We have nowhere to put the body. Take your husband’s credit card. Go get money.”

She also described a distressing encounter with a police officer at the scene.

“The policeman kept chasing me around the trailer, saying I need your statement, I need your statement,” she recalled. “I was getting really frustrated with him saying that, just leave me alone. You’re not listening to what I was saying.”

Mrs Martell said informing her family was equally traumatic, adding that her daughter, who lives in Egypt, collapsed when she received the news.

She said she later watched as her husband’s body was transported in green garbage bags secured with red tape as they left the island, and that she sat on the plane with the body at her feet.

“Nobody,” she said, “had the common sense or even an ounce of compassion to perhaps sit me down and caution me that his body was going to be transported in such a way and with such poor regard for human dignity?”

The following day, she said a nurse told her the body was inside a clear body bag beneath the outer covering, which was used because the body was wet.

“He didn’t drown. He was in the water for a very short time, like that’s just ridiculous,” she said.

After arriving in New Providence, Mrs Martell said she waited more than an hour for a mortician, who told her he had been delayed by a funeral. She said she and her family also waited hours before formally identifying the body.

She said both the Coroner and a pathologist expressed concern about what she described and indicated the matter would be investigated, but months later, the family has not received answers.

“I want the police report,” she said. “I want to know what was written down. I want to know what they consider to be the chain of events. I don’t even know who the guy was that did the CPR. He was just a doctor who happened to be there.”

Mrs Martell said the experience has been extremely difficult and that she has relied on friends for support.

“The way they behaved on that island was just reprehensible to me,” she said. “I’m disgusted. I’m heartbroken - you name it. I feel like my husband was treated with no dignity or respect.”

Doctors later determined that her husband died from a heart blockage. He was cremated in The Bahamas and his remains returned to Canada.