Stranded Trinidad cancer patient: Let me die in my homeland

Michael Quow
Michael Quow

(Trinidad Guardian) He is 65-years-old, diabetic and has US$4 left to his name.

Stranded national Michael Quow is begging the T&T Government to bring him back home saying, “If I have to die please let me die in my homeland.”

The taxi driver from Morvant visited his dying sister in February, a stage-4 cancer patient who subsequently passed and has been stuck in New York City ever since.

In a Whatsapp interview the senior citizen who was scheduled to return to Trinidad on March 23, said when he contacted the airline he was informed his flight was cancelled due to the closure of T&T borders at midnight on March 22.

The father of three said since then to now, he had been emailing the Ministry of National Security, having not one single response.

“I been trying all the time but who to try again? I sent letters to the Minister there and I get no answer. Even my son in Trinidad has been trying on my behalf and still nothing. I have heard from no one,” Quow related.

With no money, medication has been hard for Quow to source so he has had to improvise with a homemade cocktail made of garlic, ginger and lime juice. He says the ‘long time’ remedy was his only chance of controlling his diabetes.

“I have no doctor. I need money to see a doctor and to tell you the honest truth, I have about $4 left there now and I don’t know how long that will last,” Quow lamented.

Where Quow was lodging, meals were also a problem as they were often bought and not home-prepared which leaves him in a predicament, as he has to adhere to a particular diet.

It is with the recent kind gesture of a stranger from Baltimore, Maryland that Quow said he was able to have food for this week.

“I am just asking, please. I don’t want to start crying again to come home. I want to come home so I can go to the doctor and get a check-up. If it is a donkey cart they can get to bring me home I will ride it to come home. I have to come home. I don’t want to die up here. If I have to die let me dead home please,” Quow restated.