Elderly Maranao dies on way to Hajj

An elderly Maranao female Hajj pilgrim suffered cardiac arrest while on a Jeddah-bound Saudia Airlines flight for Jeddah, Saudia Arabia, and expired upon arrival Wednesday morning in a hospital in Bangladesh where the aircraft was diverted for emergency landing, the National Commission on Muslim Filipinos (NCMF) said.

NCMF spokesperson Jun Alonto Datu Ramos said Casana B. Dirimbangan, a 64-year-old pilgrim from Ramain, Lanao del Sur, was among 333 hajj goers onboard SV 861 that left Manila past 6 p.m. Tuesday bound for Jeddah.

Ramos said NCMF media team’s Dr. Jamael Guro and nurse Hessam Diadaagun conducted an emergency procedure on the victim, and asked the pilots to land at the nearest airport so that the patient could be taken to a hospital.

The aircraft landed at the Bangladesh international airport, but the elderly Maranao pilgrim was pronounced dead upon arrival in the hospital, according to Ramos, who is himself a physician supervising the hajj medical team operations.

He said Dirimbangan’s remains were flown by the same aircraft to Madina in Saudi Arabia, where relatives led by their hajj team Sheikh Absamin R. Arig and authorities agreed to bury her under Islamic rites.

The NCMF media team said Dirimbangan was earlier diagnosed with chronic renal failure and bleeding peptic ulcer.

Meanwhile, another Saudia flight was diverted to Myanmar last July 22 after a Filipino pilgrim started having difficulty in breathing.

Flight SV 871 was on its second hour on its flight from Manila when 75-yearold Mulingan Mamatuc Sumo of Picong, Lanao del Sur was taken ill. Mamatuc was with 335 other pilgrims heading to Saudi Arabia for Hajj.

Citing a report from physicians accompanying the pilgrims, Ramos said Sumo suffered from “difficult breathing, distress, anxiety (and) apathy”.

She was diagnosed to be suffering from ailments including “toxic goiter and chronic renal failure”.

Ramos said the SV 871 was able to resume its flight for Saudi Arabia after a four-hour stopover, but had to leave behind the elderly pilgrim so that she can undergo dialysis.