Elderly man found dead in Hong Kong flat spent a day or more with dead son-in-law caretaker
Experts suspect needs of the elderly are being neglected after 84-year-old and his son-in-law carer are found dead in their Tin Shui Wai flat
An 84-year-old who was confined to a wheelchair and could not feed himself was found dead yesterday with his 61-year-old son-in-law, his sole carer, in the flat they shared in Tin Shui Wai.
Police believe the younger man suffered a fatal fall several days earlier.
Neighbours on the Tin Yiu Estate in the new town often dubbed the "city of sadness" for its social tragedies, called police to report a foul smell at 11.30am. Firefighters found the son-in-law on the floor next to his bed.
The tragedy prompted calls for reinforced support for elderly people living in neighbourhoods with younger demographics.
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In Tin Shui Wai, built in the northwestern New Territories in the 1990s, the large proportion of public housing and lack of jobs and community facilities have been blamed for high rates of unemployment, suicide and domestic violence. In 2004, a jobless man in the town killed his wife and two daughters before taking his own life.
"The older man was gaunt and appeared to have starved for a long time," said a police source, adding that the 84-year-old, surnamed Chiu, needed to be fed and was connected to a urine drainage bag. He was too frail to move himself in the wheelchair.