Former Yuman stranded in Philippines

A former Yuma man has fallen ill in the Philippines and is unable to return to the United States, said family members.
 
Thomas Hunt, who moved to the city of Cagayan de Oro in the Philippines last year, has a brain tumor and is suffering from complications due to diabetes, said his former stepson Ted Hammon of Phoenix.
 
Hunt is currently unconscious, Hammon said, and is in intensive care at a hospital in Cagayan de Oro.
 
Hammon said Hunt lived in Yuma for many years and the pair kept in contact after Hammon's mother passed away in 1987.
 
He said his contact with Hunt stopped when Hunt moved to the Philippines last year with plans of retiring with his new wife, Janelaze Hunt, who is originally from there.
 
But Janelaze Hunt never made the move with her husband. She said she did not move to the Philippines with her husband because they could not afford two round trip tickets.
 
When The Sun asked for further explanation, she said that her reasons for not moving with him were between her and her husband.
 
Janelaze Hunt, who currently lives in Reston, Va., said she wants to bring her husband home to the United States for medical care, but a medical flight can cost tens of thousands of dollars.
 
"The only reason I can't bring him back is especially the financial problem," Janelaze Hunt said from her home in Reston. "I just want them to bring him home back here in America."
 
Janelaze Hunt said she is still married to Thomas Hunt and asked that the State Department help her in bringing him home.
 
But a friend of Janelaze Hunt's, Albert Dermott, who also lives in Virginia, said the State Department cannot assist them because Thomas Hunt is not in a "destitute" condition.
 
The Sun's inquiries to the State Department about Thomas Hunt were not answered at press time.
 
Janelaze Hunt said Thomas Hunt currently owes the Philippine hospital money in addition to the added expense of flying him home.
 
Dermott said Hunt needs to come back to the U.S. to get better medical care, but right now "financially, it's not feasible."
 
Janelaze Hunt said she's currently contacting people to ask for money and working at a department store in Virginia to send $100 a week to Thomas Hunt in the Philippines.
 
In addition, she said, Thomas Hunt receives a Social Security check for just over $1,000 that is directly deposited into their joint account. Because of his failing health, she said, Thomas Hunt granted her family members in the Philippines access to the account to help pay for his medical expenses.
 
Hammon said Thomas Hunt does not have the money to pay for his medical ex
penses. "He's a basic working stiff like the rest of us, he didn't have a lot of money to retire on."
 
To help with the medical costs, currently at several thousand dollars, a group of wives of expatriates living in Cagayan de Oro has set up an account to accept donations.
 
The account with Wells Fargo is in a private individual's name, and Janelaze Hunt and Dermott said they both are wary of the strangers' willingness to help.
 
"Something just doesn't seem right when a stranger does that out of the blue," Dermott said.
 
But Elmer Zink, who lives in Maryland and heard about Thomas Hunt's condition through social networking Web sites for expats, said he personally can't help Thomas Hunt but wants to help in any way he can through the Internet.
  
Pastor Glenn Connell of Valley Baptist Church in Yuma said he's known Thomas Hunt for about 8-1/2 years. He said Thomas Hunt was an active member of the church when he lived in Yuma and brought wife Janelaze several times.
 
He said Thomas Hunt conferred with him on his decision to move to the Philippines.
 
"I did have a very strong opinion," Connell said, though he declined to say what his opinion was.
 
Hammon said he was also originally skeptical about his former stepfather making the move, but "he's a grown man."
 
"To me, if he was following his heart and he was going to be happy, then more power to him," Hammon said.

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Stephanie A. Wilken can be reached at swilken@yumasun.com or 539-6857.