Thread 4 - Michael Mosley

[Aquarius1234]

Body found and identified.

I see Barry of Barry’s ramblings also thinks MM might have missed the path in the same way that he himself had done - resulting in a steeper climb and dropping onto a more northerly path down to Agia Marina. He’s replayed to comments on the post.

https://barrysramblings.com/2012/09/29/symi-getting-it-wrong/#comments

The Mirror is now saying he died after he sat down and passed out in extreme heat and also says interim findings suggest it’s impossible to find out an exact cause of death due to the advanced state of decomposition.

Heat exhaustion/dehydration can come on very quickly and can make you very confused and disorientated. Usually when people are in the danger zone they are no longer able to recognise what is happening.

Poor man, it is such a tragedy.

I don't think we need to know all the details that the press are now reporting from the last CCTV. It is really distressing.

And now I am wondering why the CCTV wasn't checked properly. Sounds like he was visible for over half an hour on it.

While going for a walk in the afternoon sun might not be something everyone does, it’s not like allthe ‘natives’ are having a ‘nice nap’ or ‘cool drink in a cafe’ during the hours from 12-4pm.

After all, MM’s wife and friends spent the entire lunchtime and afternoon at the beach. There were staff there - presumably locals - and we don’t know if MM’s friends are ‘natives’ too. They and all the staff and other tourists were presumably fine in the heat.

Obviously they would probably have been shaded most of the time, but let’s not forgot that MM had a hat and an umbrella, he wasn’t completely unprotected.

There is a world of difference between sitting on a beach under the shade of an umbrella with access to the sea to cool down in and access to a bar/restaurant with a ready supply of cool drinks/food, etc.

The locals that work/were working in the bar/restaurant over lunchtime will also have access to shade inside, at the very least fans moving the air, cool drinks, they will not be working in the full glare of the sun.

What the locals won't be doing is going for a walk at that time of the day in that heat, note in the CCTV that no-one else was walking about. Shops shut in the middle of the day in hot countries, no-one works outside, not on the roads or in the fields during those hours. It appears that even the bus doesn't run during those times.

This is what I was talking about earlier, there’s a fork in the path after walking in from Pedi; the turning to the left goes high col, round to the north side of Agia Marina. and the turning to the right goes low col and is a direct route to the main entrance of Agia Marina on the south side. It looks easy to mistakingly take the wrong turn.

Theres some good maps in some of the newspapers showing this.

@ducktapez the red and blue blobs are signposts on the lath to direct to Agia Marina. I thought I’d read they were only on the low cal path though, but perhaps not.

I think that’s fairly obvious to make that statement about locals and heat. Most people when abroad don’t go out in the heat or ensure they’re near shade and drinks.

Why Michael didn’t follow extreme heat common sense we will never know. His wife and children will be wondering this too no doubt.

Lack of manpower going through CCTV is a long laborious process especially with older systems as it may well be. Don’t forget it’s a working hotel.

Once again the media are reporting different things. The section you mentioned now on inews page contrasts with what Sky are now reporting, though the Sky report comes from the bar manager. All the more tragic that nobody spotted him making his slow and painful descent of that mountain which took half an hour.

While checking the CCTV would have helped find the body sooner, it would have made no difference to the outcome. It's a sorry tale posted on that Sky article which implies that he was visible for 30 minutes coming down the hill. What was needed was for anybody - tourist, staff, boat driver anybody- to have been looking up and spot the man clearly in distress.

Sky article, with descriptions some may find distressing:
https://news.sky.com/story/dr-michael-mosley-cctv-footage-appears-to-capture-moment-tv-doctor-fell-13150616

As you quoted me: well yes, I know all of this. I’d been replying to someone who was saying the resort was likely shut in the afternoon, which wasn’t the case. There’s a medium. Which is why I said obviously theyd be shaded most of them.

My comment “while going for a walk in the afternoon might not be something everyone does” was deliberately moderate to be sensitive. Because, you know, he’d just died.

Imagine how many officers are involved in uk going door to door collecting cctv, then how many spend hours trawling through it etc when there’s an incident in 🇬🇧. Hours and hours of manpower. This Island doesn’t have the same resources. They probably had to rely on busy businesses checking and hotels are busy places!

Oh my goodness how absolutely awful. Who in their right mind would post pictures of him!

His body wasn’t seen, at least not on U.K. TV. They just showed him being carried away, having respectfully covered him up.

It appears the poor man died before his wife even realised he was missing. So while checking the CCTV might have meant that his body was found earlier, it would not have prevented his death.

It was in the Mirror originally now removed.

My comment “while going for a walk in the afternoon might not be something everyone does” was deliberately moderate to be sensitive. Because, you know, he’d just died.

Sorry, I misread your intention. You are right to be sensitive, it is all very sad.

I do wonder if it was known that MM intended to walk to Agia Marina, or whether it had been a spur of the moment decision once he’d reached Pedi. I’m leaning towards the latter, otherwise it seems logical that available CCTV at either end of the route would have been checked more quickly to see if he’d started the route / arrived.

As it turns out, it wouldn’t have made any difference to the sad outcome, with the coroner reporting that he died very soon after reaching the resort.

It's very scary that he could have died so quickly. On the same day. Is that possible?
I thought the body could survive for 2 days without water?
I know it was very hot but I assumed he would have died the next day or the day after.

I think that as well as saying "very sad, Rest in peace" and condolences to his family and friends, we can all learn from this.

I think they think he could have had a heart attack or some sort of cardiac event.

Or simply fainted because of exhaustion from the physical exertion in that heat. Water may have helped with exhaustion but not enough.

Very true. It all comes back to us not knowing his intentions. Plus, they say he took the wrong path, but thats assuming he was aiming for Agia Marina. If he wanted to do the circular route back to Symi town where he was staying then he was on the correct route I believe but that would have been a good 4 or 5 mile loop. Either way, we know now he got into difficulties at the headland and approached the only place where there were other people/water etc.

Severe heat exhaustion / heatstroke can be fatal - onset can be fast, and even with rapid first aid there isn’t always a good outcome.

I couldn't help crying when I read this. I think I need to stop reading these articles. We really don't need to know all these details. I can't imagine how the family feel when they see information like this. I hope they're avoiding it somehow. It's heart-breaking.
This report of the CCTV footage also contradicts other reports that say he was walking around, not crawling. I hope they don't release the footage. That would be a step too far.

Or simply fainted because of exhaustion from the physical exertion in that heat. Water may have helped with exhaustion but not enough.

I actually looked up what to do in the case of someone suffering from heat exhaustion/heat stroke on the back of this as I spend a fair bit of time in hot countries.

@SabrinaThwaite actually, it cant have been known that he was heading on that peninsula, as searches only began there late Friday after he was spotted on CCTV walking in that direction. To the locals, it seemed so illogical it wasnt even considered, and MM must not have told his wife thats where he was going. Searches up to that point were on the routes back to his apartment.

But as above, once on that mountain route, we don't know if he was aiming for the beach bar or the circular route. Only MM knew that.