Grandads Body Held Ransom For Money

Hi everyone,

I'm Charlotte the granddaughter of Richard Tivey who devastatingly passed away on the 6/02/17 in North Cyprus after a long 5 month battle in various hospitals. His body is currently being held at ransom by the hospital for a substantial amount of money (the hospital fees). We have managed to pay a third off the bill already with what we can scrape together and also pleaded to make a monthly payment plan for the outstanding balance but they have refused. They want the balance to be paid off in full otherwise they will not release my grandads body so we can finally lay him to rest.

Please read his story:

My grandad was a long term sufferer of COPD, he and my nan chose to retire in their holiday home in North Cyprus 6 years ago due to the hotter climate which helped his condition. On September 14th 2016 he was admitted to Famagusta State hospital after collapsing in the garden. He was then moved to Lefkosa State Hospital without my nans knowledge or permission, she did not even receive a call to inform her that he had been moved, she only found out when she went in to Famagusta Hospital to visit him and found out he was not there. As soon as I heard the news I booked the first flight out to be with them, I rushed straight to Lefkosa State hospital where I was completely and utterly gobsmacked at the appauling conditons. The lack of cleanliness and hygiene was something I have never experienced, the treatment of patients both mentally and physically was abysmal. When I arrived at the intensive care unit there was a security guard at the door, to see my grandad I had to be escorted by this security guard to my grandads bed side where he stood and watched over us which invaded all personal privacy. He then physically tried to remove me from the unit after my 5 minute's were up, as that's all the time we were allowed (only 1 person for 5 minutes per day). Whilst I was in the ICU I witnessed countless acts of neglect and general lack of interest. I could not believe my eyes, as you can imagine as soon as I got out of there I was on the phone trying to get my grandad moved to a better hospital. I tried so many ways to make this happen, but no one wanted to help. Every doctor I spoke to in that place was so uninterested, when I was able to speak to the doctor my grandad was under (we only saw him 3 times in 10 weeks, and we were there every day) he told us that grandad was too ill to be moved. Being told this broke our hearts but we didn't give up! We finally got him out of Lefkosa State hospital on the 22nd November 2016, he was moved to the Near East University Hospital (Lefkosa) where he later died.

Although we were elated, we found out some shocking truths about the mistreatment my grandad had been subjected to in that despicable place. He was riddled with deadly infections that if were not treated right away could kill him. He had horrific bed sores, he was skin and bone due to not being fed for weeks and hadn't been moved once. Although we were faced with these hard truths, the doctors at the Near East Hospital gave us a optimistic outlook. They were confident they could help and proposed a treatment plan for him, which they never fully acted on. Every promise that was made was never fulfilled. The level of care was not up to scratch for the amount of money they were charging, and every action of the hospital seemed to be reliant on money and not patient care. As soon as my nan mentioned she was a pensioner and that her life savings had been stolen a couple of years earlier in Cyprus, all she has is her pension each month to live on they instantly said that they were going to take my grandad out of ICU and put him on a normal ward (as the cost significantly decreases). I found this very odd as they kept saying that he was an intensive care patient. Again this seemed a money orientated decision not a medical one. The doctor gave us an ultimatum, we had to provide 24/7 care in order for my grandad to be kept in the hospital ward. So of course that is what we did, but that left my nan of 72, by his bedside, worrying day and night and seeing him suffer which is devastating enough. We as a family all made plans come out and take the pressure off of her as much as we could of course. As my nan was there majority of the time, she was able to witness the lack of care on a daily basis and the total lack of professionalism of the nursing staff (they even tied his hands and legs to the bed on several occasions, to make their lives easier in ICU). They overdosed my grandad on sedatives for 5 days he didn't move, we repeatedly asked what was going on but no one wanted to understand us. There were many other incidents that happened throughout his stay as well, it is absolutely disgusting!
On the day my grandad passed 6/02/2017, the nurses had told my nan and dad they could take a break from the hospital to get some air. They reassured her that grandads vital's were 'stable and better than previous days' so she felt happy to go. Only an hour later my nan received the dreaded call, that my grandad had gone into cardiac arrest and they didn't think he would make it. As soon as my nan and dad got to the hospital, without warning they entered his room on the ward, my grandad had passed only 2 minutes before, he was covered over with a sheet and surrounded by a couple of bored uninterested nurses. It was heartbreaking. They weren't even warned that he had passed or given the option to not see him like that. Not even 2 hours after he had passed, the hospital rang my grieving nan to ask for Full Payment otherwise they would hold my grandads body until she did.
We went to the hospital on the 8/02/17 and pleaded to talk to someone about releasing my grandads body but no one in charge would speak to us. I even tried to negotiate a payment plan with one of the finance people but they refused it and insisted that we pay in full which we can't do, we don't have £23,000 in our back pockets. We've already paid 1 third of the total bill with whatever we could scrape together, so its not like we're going to do a runner. All we want is to be able to lay my grandad to rest and we can't do that because he is being held ransom for money, its disgusting. The hospital's spokesperson quoted in an article that we had published out here in Cyprus "Holding Mr Tivey's body here may not be ethical but we are trying to help the family." That just confirms that they know what they're doing and they don't care what consequences it has to our family.

My grandad was such an amazing person, he would do anything for anyone, he would take the shirt off his back for a stranger. He was loved by so many people and he touched so many peoples lives, he was always the life and soul of any party and done anything to put a smile on peoples faces. He always has and always will be my Hero, he holds a big piece of my heart, and I can't even begin to explain how broken I am. He didn't deserve this horrific treatment, all we want is to lay him to rest and give him the send off he deserves.

If you or someone you may know could help us in any way, we would be eternally thankful.
My email is [email redacted].uk if you think you could help in any other way.

I never want anyone to have to go through the trauma that our family is going through. I want to make sure this never happens to anyone again, and I will do anything to make that happen. Thank you so much for reading, please share to everyone you know.
Charlotte