Cancer-stricken OFW dies on flight from Saudi

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines–An overseas Filipino worker suffering from cancer died on a flight from Saudi Arabia that landed in Manila Saturday afternoon, according to authorities at Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

The passenger was identified as Reynaldo Ofracio, 56, a resident of Marilao, Bulacan province, who was onboard Saudi Arabian Airlines flight SV-874 that reached Naia’s Terminal 1 around 2 p.m.

Ofracio’s wife Dorothy, who accompanied him on the flight, said her husband, who worked as an audiovisual supervisor at King Faisal Specialist Hospital in Jeddah, had liver cancer.

“Ofracio complained of difficulty of breathing four hours prior to landing in Manila,” Jose Umandap, medical officer-on-duty, said in a report to the Manila International Airport Authority, the Naia state operator.

Umandap said Ofracio did not respond to emergency aid and died in his seat about three hours before the landing. The pilot offered to land the aircraft in the nearest airport but Santos’ wife declined, saying the flight to Manila should proceed.

The body was later brought to a temporary morgue at the airport’s ramp clinic, where Dr. Noel Ramirez of the Bureau of Quarantine at Naia cleared the release of the remains to the widow. Jerome Aning