Haunted by news about 80 year old woman left behind on Lizard Island

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can’t imagine deciding to be an 81 year old solo traveler on a cruise though. Doesn’t seem smart. If she had enough money for this expensive cruise she should have paid for a nurse of something to go with her.

What a ridiculous, ageist thing to say. How old are you? 15? You have no idea what kind of shape an 80 yr can be in, both good or bad.

Moron.

--40 yr old.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s fine. She was a ripe old age. Everyone is going to die someday, and she died doing what she loved. Even if they had done the headcount and gone back she might have already been dead. People make such a fuss about these incidents. Mistakes happen.

Wait till you or someone you care about gets killed in a car crash or from a medical oopsie. Mistakes happen, huh?

That would be a tragedy now because I am young with young kids. If it happened when I was 81 it would be sad for my immediate family, but it wouldn’t be a tragedy that people on the opposite side of the world need to care about.

Given your way of thinking, I don't think it would be much of a tragedy. Work on yourself a bit and maybe. You're not magical because you have kids. They'll be fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've only been on one cruise, but you had to sign out and sign back in. So it would be really obvious that pax were missing. Seems odd.

It was a very small luxury ship, only 120 passengers. So yes, it's odd, but what's the most odd to me is nobody volunteered to take her back to the ship.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s fine. She was a ripe old age. Everyone is going to die someday, and she died doing what she loved. Even if they had done the headcount and gone back she might have already been dead. People make such a fuss about these incidents. Mistakes happen.

Wait till you or someone you care about gets killed in a car crash or from a medical oopsie. Mistakes happen, huh?

That would be a tragedy now because I am young with young kids. If it happened when I was 81 it would be sad for my immediate family, but it wouldn’t be a tragedy that people on the opposite side of the world need to care about.

Given your way of thinking, I don't think it would be much of a tragedy. Work on yourself a bit and maybe. You're not magical because you have kids. They'll be fine.

Agreed, her kids are probably better off without her.

[Anonymous]

Family should sue the pants off the cruise company.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've only been on one cruise, but you had to sign out and sign back in. So it would be really obvious that pax were missing. Seems odd.

It was a very small luxury ship, only 120 passengers. So yes, it's odd, but what's the most odd to me is nobody volunteered to take her back to the ship.

That was really odd.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t imagine deciding to be an 81 year old solo traveler on a cruise though. Doesn’t seem smart. If she had enough money for this expensive cruise she should have paid for a nurse of something to go with her.

What a ridiculous, ageist thing to say. How old are you? 15? You have no idea what kind of shape an 80 yr can be in, both good or bad.

Moron.

--40 yr old.

They actually market these cruises to older people. My aunt went on a 6 month long cruise at 79. Sort of a "see the world before you die" marketing campaign - not see Lizard Island and die all alone.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think it’s fine. She was a ripe old age. Everyone is going to die someday, and she died doing what she loved. Even if they had done the headcount and gone back she might have already been dead. People make such a fuss about these incidents. Mistakes happen.

Wait till you or someone you care about gets killed in a car crash or from a medical oopsie. Mistakes happen, huh?

That would be a tragedy now because I am young with young kids. If it happened when I was 81 it would be sad for my immediate family, but it wouldn’t be a tragedy that people on the opposite side of the world need to care about.

So you don’t think it’s tragic for an old woman to die alone forgotten on an island. Wow - such an empty soul.

Ageist creep. I hope their kids learn that attitude too.

It's something people care about because (1) human was left thru probable error even negligence and others have empathy (2) it is a cautionary tale about standards of care and hopefully will improve those for that company and others too.

Right?

Is there any other group of HUMANS that it would be acceptable to say, “I mean it would be tragic if I died…but someone from that group…not so much.”

Truly disgusting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I can’t imagine deciding to be an 81 year old solo traveler on a cruise though. Doesn’t seem smart. If she had enough money for this expensive cruise she should have paid for a nurse of something to go with her.

She was an experienced bush walker. I grantee this woman was more fit that you ever have been.

Have to agree. I know several extremely fit 80 year olds who happily go hiking and do walking trips in the Alps. I suspect she seemed completely fit and active to the tour so they felt fine leaving her alone to return to the ship. The cruise was absolutely negligent in failing to notice she hadn't returned.

I am reminded of a grandmother who was healthy and fit with no health issues who one day felt a bit tired and decided to take a short nap, which she never woke from. Sometimes that is what happens.

If you are lucky.

[Anonymous]

Maybe she went there to die. Wanting to have her last moments alone in a pretty spot.
Common in some cultures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You NEVER hike by yourself!

She went with people so don't blame the victim. Sounds like the others left her behind.

The article implies that when she started to feel unwell, the leaders of the group told her to walk back down the way they had come. Then didn't do a headcount before going back to the boat.

If that's true, it's hugely negligent.

Agree. Someone should have accompanied her back. A headcount would have caught the issue.

I did a scuba trip at the Great Barrier Reef years ago and they were very diligent about doing headcounts before the boat moved anywhere. I think sometime before that a couple had been left behind by a scuba boat and lessons were learned. I’m sorry for what the poor woman went through.

There is a movie about that case.

True horror story.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I can’t imagine deciding to be an 81 year old solo traveler on a cruise though. Doesn’t seem smart. If she had enough money for this expensive cruise she should have paid for a nurse of something to go with her.

Live a bit longer.

Some people don’t have the options you would prefer.

Are they consigned to sitting on the couch and watching TV?

[Anonymous]

It sounds like she turned around as the trail was too difficult and everyone thought she would head back down the trail to the ship but for some unknown reason she went off trail and didn't go back down to the ship. Either she got lost or was disoriented or was already suffering a medical event. I don't think the hikers did anything wrong. I am sure it isn't uncommon for people to turn back on hikes and go back to the ship - by parents did that twice on excursions on their cruise.

They were wrong for not doing a count and realizing she was missing. We don't know when or why she died so it isn't clear if she could have lived if they had found her before sailing or not.

[Anonymous]

Maybe a little off topic but I did some group tours in Australia this summer, as a solo traveler, and I noticed a cavalier attitude towards checking numbers. There was a transfer from bus to boat and the group leader didn't know how many people should have been on the boat, and almost left without 4 people.

This was alarming to me as a solo traveler since no one would likely mention I was missing. So I just made sure I arrived before the time etc.

I haven't experienced this casual attitude about headcounts in other countries' tours - S Am, Asia, Europe.

Australia was definitely an outlier in this respect.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You NEVER hike by yourself!

She went with people so don't blame the victim. Sounds like the others left her behind.

You think a group of people willingly left an elderly woman alone on a hike?

Obviously they did!