Frenchman falls in SDQ and dies

ju10prd

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Accident victim at Las Americas Airport dies
French citizen, 37-year old Maurois Alain Siounanda, who fell three stories inside the the Las Americas International Airport on 5 February, died while being treated at Dario Contreras Trauma Hospital. He was at the airport to take an Air France flight back to Paris after vacationing in the Dominican Republic.

According to Clarence Veras, spokesman at the hospital, the death of Siounanda was due to multiple blunt force trauma that he experienced when falling off the escalator and down the three floors. Veras said Siounanda was intoxicated at the time of the accident. His body was sent to the National Institute of Forensic Science (INACIF) to determine the definite cause of death.

https://www.diariolibre.com/noticias...icas-XF9124541


I am mystified how, even a drunk, can fall off the escalator from the third level restaurant area onto 1st level arrivals area.

There was mention of a ruck sack involved in an earlier account of the incident yesterday.

Any thoughts or more information?
 
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DR1 News

Accident victim at Las Americas Airport dies
French citizen, 37-year old Maurois Alain Siounanda, who fell three stories inside the the Las Americas International Airport on 5 February, died while being treated at Dario Contreras Trauma Hospital. He was at the airport to take an Air France flight back to Paris after vacationing in the Dominican Republic.

According to Clarence Veras, spokesman at the hospital, the death of Siounanda was due to multiple blunt force trauma that he experienced when falling off the escalator and down the three floors. Veras said Siounanda was intoxicated at the time of the accident. His body was sent to the National Institute of Forensic Science (INACIF) to determine the definite cause of death.

https://www.diariolibre.com/noticias...icas-XF9124541


I am mystified how, even a drunk, can fall off the escalator from the third level restaurant area onto 1st level arrivals area.

There was mention of a ruck sack involved in an earlier account of the incident yesterday.

Any thoughts or more information?

Being treated at that hospital might have killed him. ;)
 

josh2203

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DR1 News

Accident victim at Las Americas Airport dies
French citizen, 37-year old Maurois Alain Siounanda, who fell three stories inside the the Las Americas International Airport on 5 February, died while being treated at Dario Contreras Trauma Hospital. He was at the airport to take an Air France flight back to Paris after vacationing in the Dominican Republic.

According to Clarence Veras, spokesman at the hospital, the death of Siounanda was due to multiple blunt force trauma that he experienced when falling off the escalator and down the three floors. Veras said Siounanda was intoxicated at the time of the accident. His body was sent to the National Institute of Forensic Science (INACIF) to determine the definite cause of death.

https://www.diariolibre.com/noticias...icas-XF9124541


I am mystified how, even a drunk, can fall off the escalator from the third level restaurant area onto 1st level arrivals area.

There was mention of a ruck sack involved in an earlier account of the incident yesterday.

Any thoughts or more information?

My wife informed me about this yesterday shortly after it had happened, as it was published in FB. Then I saw it, and I just asked her why on earth did they took him to Dario Contreras... My wife said to me a few years back, that when she was a kid, she visited some relative in that hospital, and was close to throwing up seeing how patients were treated there... I can imagine things have changed, but still...

Did he not have any form of insurance from his country?

Very sad and unfortunate news...
 

ju10prd

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My wife informed me about this yesterday shortly after it had happened, as it was published in FB. Then I saw it, and I just asked her why on earth did they took him to Dario Contreras... My wife said to me a few years back, that when she was a kid, she visited some relative in that hospital, and was close to throwing up seeing how patients were treated there... I can imagine things have changed, but still...

Did he not have any form of insurance from his country?

Very sad and unfortunate news...

He wouldn't have needed a hospital if he wasn't so drunk and that wasn't the question I posed.

I am mystified how, even a drunk, can fall off the escalator from the third level restaurant area onto 1st level arrivals area.


Surely someone at least has travelled on those escalators and can come up with some imaginative explanation how some one could have fallen to his ultimate death from there? Mind boggling imo.
 

ju10prd

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I would think impossible............

This was the explanation in one paper.....

Los médicos que atendieron al extranjero en el centro de salud del aeropuerto Las Américas, explicaron que el pasajero recibió un golpe contundente en la pierna izquierda tras su caída del tercer nivel de la terminal, cuando una mochila que utilizaba como equipaje personal se atascó en la escalera eléctrica cuando descendía al primer nivel.

http://eldia.com.do/un-frances-borracho-cae-del-tercer-nivel-del-aeropuerto-las-americas/

Still makes no sense to me.
 

Cdn_Gringo

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Did he not have any form of insurance from his country?

I don't know the specifics of this case but if no local insurance card is found among your possessions and you are seriously hurt, you can be treated as if you have no insurance until you are able to communicate and make a phone call or two to arrange for payment.

Even then, lots of insurance companies expect the injured to pay their bills themselves and submit a claim or at least be able to pay their own medical bill until such time as a claim is accessed and an arrangement to pay the hospital directly is approved.

Payment procedures vary greatly from hospital to hospital here. If you are traveling alone and not able to to provide insurance information at the time you are brought to a hospital, have nothing on your person with instructions for medical personnel and are not able to sign forms authorizing expenses on a credit card, it's not outside the realm of possibility that measures may not be made available to you until you are able to do those things.

Travel medical insurance often sold with vacation packages is notoriously slow. Almost without exception, these policies are all post claim processed and that process can take a long time as case clerks scour your medical history for any reason to deny a claim. If you need urgent surgery and have to deal with this type of medical insurance, you are probably better off paying anyway you can and worrying about the insurance later. If you are unresponsive, there is only so much many hospitals are prepared to do while they ponder the possibility of not getting paid - for profit hospitals do in some cases consider death a possible outcome if payment for expensive equipment and procedures is not sorted out. Many of these policies contain language requiring the insured person to contact the company prior to incurring costs you expect them to cover - not an easy thing to do when you are in pieces.

Lots of travelers get into financial difficulties when they get sick or injured thinking they have insurance when they do not or assuming the insurance they have is sufficient for all medical situations when it's not.
 
Last edited:

bigbird

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This was the explanation in one paper.....

Los médicos que atendieron al extranjero en el centro de salud del aeropuerto Las Américas, explicaron que el pasajero recibió un golpe contundente en la pierna izquierda tras su caída del tercer nivel de la terminal, cuando una mochila que utilizaba como equipaje personal se atascó en la escalera eléctrica cuando descendía al primer nivel.

http://eldia.com.do/un-frances-borracho-cae-del-tercer-nivel-del-aeropuerto-las-americas/

Still makes no sense to me.

Dominican journalism at it's best.............. NO way, after the first fall you mean to tell me everyone just stood around and watched as he staggered 15 feet straight and 10 feet to the right and fell again.................. come on, we both know something in that report is screwed up.
 

ju10prd

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Dominican journalism at it's best.............. NO way, after the first fall you mean to tell me everyone just stood around and watched as he staggered 15 feet straight and 10 feet to the right and fell again.................. come on, we both know something in that report is screwed up.

Yes.

It starts with the inconceivable fall....well the fall that doesn't seem possible without jumping over the escalator railing.
 

Cdn_Gringo

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A fall from the third floor to the first floor, bouncing off an escalator railing or two on the way down and hitting the floor I suspect would do a little more damage than just bust up a leg. Gravity and momentum add up fast and the sudden stop at the bottom often tears internal organs. Your crooked leg may be obvious but the fact that your liver is now floating free may not be readily apparent.

Poor guy, but getting stuff caught in an escalator is not unheard of.
 

chico bill

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He wouldn't have needed a hospital if he wasn't so drunk and that wasn't the question I posed.

I am mystified how, even a drunk, can fall off the escalator from the third level restaurant area onto 1st level arrivals area.


Surely someone at least has travelled on those escalators and can come up with some imaginative explanation how some one could have fallen to his ultimate death from there? Mind boggling imo.

I don't have the link but when I read the story it says he dropped his equipaje - and he fell trying to grab it. Sad for him but sounds as though he was quite intoxicated.
 
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I don't know the specifics of this case but if no local insurance card is found among your possessions and you are seriously hurt, you can be treated as if you have no insurance until you are able to communicate and make a phone call or two to arrange for payment.

Even then, lots of insurance companies expect the injured to pay their bills themselves and submit a claim or at least be able to pay their own medical bill until such time as a claim is accessed and an arrangement to pay the hospital directly is approved.

Payment procedures vary greatly from hospital to hospital here. If you are traveling alone and not able to to provide insurance information at the time you are brought to a hospital, have nothing on your person with instructions for medical personnel and are not able to sign forms authorizing expenses on a credit card, it's not outside the realm of possibility that measures may not be made available to you until you are able to do those things.

Travel medical insurance often sold with vacation packages is notoriously slow. Almost without exception, these policies are all post claim processed and that process can take a long time as case clerks scour your medical history for any reason to deny a claim. If you need urgent surgery and have to deal with this type of medical insurance, you are probably better off paying anyway you can and worrying about the insurance later. If you are unresponsive, there is only so much many hospitals are prepared to do while they ponder the possibility of not getting paid - for profit hospitals do in some cases consider death a possible outcome if payment for expensive equipment and procedures is not sorted out. Many of these policies contain language requiring the insured person to contact the company prior to incurring costs you expect them to cover - not an easy thing to do when you are in pieces.

Lots of travelers get into financial difficulties when they get sick or injured thinking they have insurance when they do not or assuming the insurance they have is sufficient for all medical situations when it's not.

Or they take you to the ATM machine. ;)
24v8t36.jpg
 

bigbird

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May 1, 2005
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Yes.

It starts with the inconceivable fall....well the fall that doesn't seem possible without jumping over the escalator railing.

gotcha, and i agree. That would be the only conceivable way he could have fallen from the food court level to arrivals. So he would not have actually fallen down the escalators but went over the one meter high glass railing/partition. He must have been blasted out of his mind drunk to do that.
 

zoomzx11

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Jan 21, 2006
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Head trauma is normally what kills you in a fall on to a hard surface. It does not take much height to be fatal.
A bicycle will do it on to concrete.
Normally critical injuries are taken to the nearest hospital.

In developed countries there are grades of trauma hospitals and in certain cases is can be appropriate to by pass a hospital for a specialized trauma center. Normally it is not.
Idea is that basic treatment to the life threatening wounds needs to begin asap.
If you need basic life support it does not have to be a great hospital.
It is when you need more advanced care and surgery that the quality becomes important.
This poor soul sounds as if nothing could have saved him.
 

zoomzx11

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here you go,,,,,,,,,,,,, top far right would be third level food court and bottom of the photo would be first level arrivals.

14jxea1.jpg

A forty foot fall to a cement floor will kill you. Survival would be a very unlikely.
Heads are fragile. It is why helmets were invented.

If you so much as ride a bicycle without a helmet you are foolish.
Motorcycles and motos sans helmets ventures into crazyland.
 

Caonabo

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My wife informed me about this yesterday shortly after it had happened, as it was published in FB. Then I saw it, and I just asked her why on earth did they took him to Dario Contreras... My wife said to me a few years back, that when she was a kid, she visited some relative in that hospital, and was close to throwing up seeing how patients were treated there... I can imagine things have changed, but still...

Did he not have any form of insurance from his country?

Very sad and unfortunate news...

Dario Contreras Trauma Hospital is the nearest Trauma hospital in proximity to SDQ, so it is within reason for him to have been sent there. A local clinica would not have been sufficient. Although DCTH has received it's share of negative media attention over the years, albeit deservedly so, they have been very successful at other times in regards to life threatening emergencies. Those moments do not receive the same press or air time.
 

josh2203

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Dario Contreras Trauma Hospital is the nearest Trauma hospital in proximity to SDQ, so it is within reason for him to have been sent there. A local clinica would not have been sufficient. Although DCTH has received it's share of negative media attention over the years, albeit deservedly so, they have been very successful at other times in regards to life threatening emergencies. Those moments do not receive the same press or air time.

Thanks for clearing up this, I was not aware of this, just went based on what I've heard/seen...
 

lifeisgreat

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Dario Contreras Trauma Hospital is the nearest Trauma hospital in proximity to SDQ, so it is within reason for him to have been sent there. A local clinica would not have been sufficient. Although DCTH has received it's share of negative media attention over the years, albeit deservedly so, they have been very successful at other times in regards to life threatening emergencies. Those moments do not receive the same press or air time.


Only the bad and ugly gets attention ... I don’t get the need for pictures and video of gruesome endings and why hospitals allow pictures lieing  in the morgue dead just wrong :(