Man's Death Goes Unnoticed In Sydney

[Kor37 9]

Man's Death Goes Unnoticed in Sydney

AP

Posted: 2008-01-10 06:04:21

SYDNEY, Australia (AP) - A man lay dead in his apartment in Australia's largest city for a year before anyone noticed, officials and news reports said Thursday.

 

The body of Jorge Chambe, 64, was found on Tuesday in his single bedroom, government-owned flat in the Sydney suburb of Yagoona when police and firefighters broke in, after concerns about his welfare were finally raised.

 

Decomposition of the body was advanced and bank records indicated Chambe died about a year earlier, officials said.

 

"It's amazing," Detective-Inspector Ian Prye told reporters. "This guy lives in the suburbs and he dies and no one notices for a year."

 

The circumstances of Chambe's death triggered calls for a national strategy to better check on elderly people living alone, and worry that Australians were losing their sense of community.

 

"How can it happen that a person can die in such a lonely way and no one know?" New South Wales state Housing Minister Matt Brown told the Macquarie Radio network on Thursday.

 

In news reports, neighbors at the apartment block described Chambe as a quiet man who was friendly but who kept mostly to himself. He had received federal government welfare payments and his rent was paid automatically by direct debit from his bank account.

 

His mailbox had filled to overflowing, but no one had noticed a smell or other clues that he had died, the reports said. A worried neighbor finally called housing officials on Monday, and authorities broke in when Chambe did not respond.

 

Critics said the state government had failed to follow through on a monitoring plan that was established after three elderly people's deaths that had gone unnoticed for months came to light within two weeks in early 2006.

 

Geoffrey Bird, deputy directory of seniors' organization the Council on the Aging, said the problem of old people living out their final days in isolation was a national problem, and needed a federal response.

 

What a terrible life it is when not a single person gives a damn about you.........

[He Who Shall Not Be Named 2]

Old or depressed people often don't maintain their social networks. They fall out of contact, don't return calls or letters, or any of a number of things. It isn't that people don't care, it's that they don't know how to get in contact and it is out of sight, out of mind.

 

It is sad to see it happen, but it happens because people don't maintain their contacts, don't get to know their neighbors, etc. Much of it falls on the part of the deceased. That's the way it was with my dad.

[Theunicornhunter 2]

That is sad - but there is a similar story in today's headlines - a toddler starved to death after his mom died and no one checked on them.

[trekz 7]

A similar thing happened a few blocks away about a year ago. An elderly man was discovered who had been dead for two years I believe. He did not mix with his neighbors, who assumed he had gone on a trip when they didn't see him for a while. It does seem amazing that this can happen in a city and no one notices. It's very sad.

[GhostofMajorHayes 10]

Very sad story, this unfortunately happens a lot.