The map above shows the north of the island of Symi. It belongs to Greece but is in the eastern part of the Aegean Sea very close to Turkey. It is a pretty barren island with a full-time population of less than 2500. However, in the summer holiday months, that number may be trebled.
Last Wednesday an English holidaymaker called Michael Mosley was on the island with his wife and some friends. They were enjoying Saint Nicholas Beach in the bottom right hand corner of the map.
Michael said he was feeling a little unwell and set off back to their holiday accommodation in Symi town which is over in the bottom left of the map. it took twenty minutes to successfully walk to Pedi - a fishing village just right of centre. He was spotted there on CCTV cameras.
Travelling west upon a quiet paved road, he would have had only two kilometres to go before reaching Symi town. However, inexplicably he did not go west, he headed to the north east instead upon a rocky path that leads to Agia Marina to the top right hand corner of the map.
Agia Marina is a small resort and there's no road there. Most visitors arrive by boat from Symi town's harbour. Michael was walking there in the heat of the day, feeling unwell and holding an umbrella to give him some shade from the searing sunshine.
He didn't make it. After five days, his body was discovered next to the perimeter fencing at Agia Marina's tiny resort. He was just thirty metres from the beach. Almost there. So near but yet so far.
This story has received a lot of attention here in Great Britain because Dr Michael Mosley was a well-know TV personality - specialising in health-related matters - including dieting and generally looking after your body. He was a a great communicator and passionate about all things health-related
It is therefore quite ironic that he probably died from heat exhaustion after taking a wrong turn out of Pedi. Local Greeks would not choose to go walking like that in the heat of the mid-afternoon sun. The temperature at the time was estimated to be 40℃. Such a tragedy but I suppose that it could have happened to any of us.
Heat exhaustion may cause disorientation and weakness. It is easy to feel faint or dizzy and of course there's the problem of dehydration. If only the rewind button could be pressed on Michael Mosley's life. He was a fit sixty seven year old with four grown up children and a loving wife. His demise came far too early.
That's awful. I wonder why his family let him leave, or maybe he was very stubborn. Mad dogs and Englishmen. So many questions.
ReplyDeleteHe will have said, "No! No! I will be fine" but he took a wrong turn.
DeleteI don't know. Something in the current story line doesn't add up. And I am saying that as the niece of a climber of the world's highest mountains, the niece of many a hiker and the mother of an occasional long distance hiker who does it because he enjoys nature in all its glory. All precautions taken. There are risks and there are risks. And some you do NOT take. Obviously, accidents happen but ...
ReplyDeleteTo put it another way: If I wanted - for whatever reason - to cut my life short I sure know how to do so without anyone being the wiser; without causing anyone additional anguish outside the natural grief over my demise. Accidents happen ...
U
Ursula, I did consider the possibility
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How tragic and sad.
ReplyDeleteThoughts to his family.
Seems he had a very loving family. All four children got to Symi as soon as they could but to no avail.
DeleteThe problem with heat stroke is that the affected person doesn't know how compromised they are.
ReplyDeleteI have enjoyed Michael's TV shows. He is a great loss to education and of course to the people who love him
He will never be old or remembered that way.
DeleteThat's a very sad story about some one who knew all the rules.
ReplyDeleteIt is easy to be wise after the event.
DeleteI heard on the news last night that his body had been found. If he was feeling unwell, no one should have let him go walking off alone, at least one of the others should have gone with him, or gone for help while Michael laid down in some shade.
ReplyDeleteIn general, Australians know more about dealing with heat than Britons.
DeleteIt is indeed ironic - and inexplicable - that he did something so unreasonable as to walk on his own (probably without carrying a water bottle?) in unfamiliar territory in the worst of the day's heat, when he must have known perfectly well how unhealthy that was. So sad and tragic. The poor family. And the media attention doesn't make it easier.
ReplyDeleteHe had one small water bottle which would have been plenty if he had not taken the wrong turn at Pedi.
DeleteYou know, I've read several articles about this incident, and you've given the best, most concise explanation I've seen yet. You should have been a journalist!
ReplyDeleteA journalist? But those guys are supremely talented human beings! Thanks Steve.
DeleteA very bizarre tragedy. In that heat one usually stays indoors, not go hiking over treacherous terrain. Very sad.
ReplyDeleteSometimes the sun is so fierce that we should shelter from it.
DeleteVery well explained, apart from why he was "allowed "to go walking in that heat with no phone and feeling ill, and it looks as if the road to Symi Town was obvious from Pedi! I don't think we will ever know. Tragic for his family. I hadn't seen that map before and it makes it even more difficult to understand the whys and wherefores!
ReplyDeleteI believe it was all down to a wrong turn. Maybe he was already feeling a little befuddled because of the heat.
DeleteIf he had turned full circle to see how far he had already come, then it would be easy enough for a heat addled brain to make a wrong turn.
DeleteVery sad. I would suggest any one walking should carry liquid, a hiking stick and a mobile phone in case of any emergencycle.
ReplyDeleteDr Mosley carried an umbrella. I hope you have one Dave - to shield yourself from the hot sun on the Irish Riviera.
DeleteThe rain arrives on Thursday.
DeleteTragic though this is, I'm trying to understand why, as a sensible man and a physician, he decided to walk alone, without his phone or (presumably) water, in the searing heat of the day. A dark umbrella would offer little respite from the heat. Having been to Symi and walked there, I know how desolate it can be - there is little if any shade, and few trees. Like Ursula, I feel that something doesn't add up.
ReplyDeleteApparently he did have a small bottle of water with him. In my estimation it is the wrong turn that did him. I wonder how he and his wife and friends got to St Nicholas beach in the first place. Perhaps they got there by water taxi from Symi town.
DeleteI think I read that they got to the beach by water taxi and were to return the same way, with the boat picking them up at around 4 p.m. Presumably Michael did not wish to wait that long and decided to walk back.
DeleteTragic. But you yourself go out walking in lonely places on your own without a mobile phone. You almost make a macho thing of it. When I was 55 I got one. Phone and text only without the crap. You should have one. It's a basic item of safety equipment like a whistle and heat blanket used to be, and proper shoes and clothing. A phone might save you if anything happened to you, or avoid those who love you worrying if you were delayed. A phone might or might not have helped MM, it would not help in all circumstances, sometimes there is no signal, but for an elderly gentleman like you it is sensible to have one. You don't have to have it switched on. You can still get special dumb phones for old people. I've got one.
ReplyDeleteIt is sad, but what a stupid old man. He was widely known in Australia too, just not by me. I'd never heard of him. Mad dogs and Englishmen...
ReplyDeleteLife is fragile -
ReplyDeleteSeveral months ago a man suffering from dementia got off a cruise ship in Cozumel with his wife. Somehow, he managed to slip away from her sight and although every one on the island searched for him AND the military AND the police AND other out-of-country professional searchers, he was not found. Not alive or dead. It is not a large island but a great deal of it is covered in dense jungle. His family does not have the comfort of knowing what happened, if indeed, it is comfort.
ReplyDeleteHearing of Michael Mosley reminded me of this story. What a tragedy to his family.
Like many accidental deaths that occur outside, it can't be attributed to any one thing but rather a compounding series of errors. He might have survived all the errors if they had only occurred by themselves but by making a series of them in a row, even he couldn't survive the odds.
ReplyDeleteIt was his time to go. Sad but true.
ReplyDeleteHe died of natural causes
ReplyDeleteMaybe like so many animals I have seen
We went off on his own to die
How sad
I'm still thinking about this. Why didn't he just stop in Pedi?
ReplyDeleteThis has been on our news here as well - first that he was missing, and then that he'd been found dead. He is well-known from TV here too. If memory serves me right quite a lot of his programmes were "health experiments". I guess if not used to the extreme heat and just feeling "a little" unwell it's easy enough even for a doctor to misjudge one's ability...
ReplyDeleteIt is all very strange. For someone who was a doctor and who extolled the healthy way to live, he made a poor judgement on that day. Already feeling unwell, he took it upon himself to walk in the blistering midday heat on rocky terrain without presumably any water and certainly without his mobile phone. The result was no doubt heatstroke which coloured his judgement and led him the wrong way he needed back to his accommodation. Surely he could have sought shelter SOMEWHERE near the beach they were on until they were picked up by the boat they were waiting for. Such a sad story.
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