Extracted from The Houston Chronicle (Houston, TX)
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Man buried before his family is notified
WWII vet reported missing was at VA hospital, but nephew says he was told his uncle wasn't there
By MIKE TOLSON
HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Ray Emmons had a good life, surviving a serious war wound and the nightmare of a German prisoner of war camp. The former movie projectionist never married or had children, but he made friends easily and was liked by most who knew him.
But his recent death at the age of 84 was another matter. With no family members present, Emmons passed away alone on Nov. 20 after a series of heart attacks. His nephew John Emmons, who was close to him for many years and kept close contact with him as his health declined, never even knew he was in the hospital.
On Sunday, more than a week after John reported his uncle missing, he learned that his uncle had died at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center and was already buried.
``It's really a mess, to say the least,'' Emmons said. ``Whatever the breakdown was, it needs to be fixed.''
Emmons was never contacted, even though a doctor at DeBakey purportedly passed along his name to hospital social workers. Emmons could have been present to comfort his bachelor uncle in his final days. Instead, he spent more than a week in a frustrating limbo, fearing that his uncle had fallen victim to foul play after the hospital had assured him that his uncle had not been there.
Emmons said he felt he had no choice but to file a missing-person report with the Houston Police Department. But it was a television news report about it Sunday that led to the truth: His uncle not only died alone but had also been buried unmourned on Dec. 11 in a brief military funeral.
Last seen on Nov. 15
Ray Emmons lived in an apartment at a retirement complex in Bellaire. He had many friends there, and they had grown increasingly worried since last seeing him on Nov. 15. That was the day he checked into the hospital, where he regularly received medical treatment.
John Emmons, an insurance appraiser who lives near Chappell Hill in Washington County, said he usually called his uncle every week and would come to Houston to have lunch with him about once a month. Toward the end of November, however, he got busier than normal and did not make his regular phone call. When he tried to reach his uncle in early December, he kept getting no answer.
Concerned that something had happened, he came to Houston on Dec. 5 and went to the apartment. No one answered. The manager with a pass key was not reachable, so Emmons was told to go ahead and break a window to get in. Once inside, he quickly saw his uncle's calendar. His uncle liked to cross out every day as it passed, but no day had been marked for almost three weeks.
Emmons said he went immediately to the VA hospital, all but certain that he would get some news. Nothing. He said he was told by several people that his uncle had not been there. He then reported him missing. The police flier went to all the local hospitals, but it got no response, Emmons said.
There was no progress until a onetime acquaintance of his uncle saw a TV report about Ray Emmons on KTRK. Judy Locke had met Ray when her mother lived at the complex a few years earlier. Locke remembered how nice he had been to her mother and decided to help in the hunt for him. She did an Internet search and quickly came up with a phone number for John and his wife, Doreen.
Locke called him and said she would put her daughters on the case. Quickly, one of them located Ray's car in the VA hospital parking lot.
She flagged down a VA police officer, showed him the flier, then confronted hospital personnel with compelling evidence that Ray was there or had been there. After some checking, they eventually confirmed that he had been admitted, died and been sent out for burial, which took place with military honors at the Veterans National Cemetery on Friday, almost a week after his nephew had gone to the hospital looking for him.
Disconnected phone number?
``The (hospital) attempted to contact the next of kin listed in the patient's medical records,'' a hospital spokesman said on Monday. ``Unfortunately, the number was disconnected. The staff researched all of the patient's health care notes in an attempt to find a working number. Sadly, this was also unsuccessful.''
John Emmons said his uncle had not updated his emergency contact, which was a brother, Hugh, who died in 2008. But John said he spoke to a doctor who said his uncle had asked that John be called. Ray did not remember the number, but as it turns out both John's home and cell phone numbers were in Ray's wallet. They were written on a card in plain view as soon as the wallet is opened, he said.
``He had told her that I should be called,'' Emmons said. ``Somebody should have looked in his wallet before they sent him off to be buried.''
Or even before he died, Emmons said. The military sendoff was not what Ray had planned, but that bothered John less than the thought of his uncle suffering by himself.
``What's really sad is that Ray thought the world of the VA hospital,'' Emmons said. ``He trusted them and their treatment. At the end, they let him down.''