OFW's bout with cancer ends on Manila-bound plane

Cancer-stricken overseas Filipino worker (OFW) Joel Llorente boarded a plane bound for Manila from Jeddah on Tuesday in hopes of spending the remaining days of his life with his family, but was unable to make it.Llorente died on board a Saudi Airlines flight before the plane reached the Ninoy Aquino International Airport on Wednesday afternoon, said a report aired over Q’s Balitanghali.
This page requires a higher version browserLlorente‘s wife, Lourdes, told GMA News that her husband had been working as a maintenance supervisor at a gas station in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for more than eight years until he got sick with cancer of the throat.She said that the employer of Llorente refused to let him go until the last minute despite his worsening condition.She also said that her husband might have foreseen what was going to happen when she last talked to him.“Huling tawag niya sa akin Monday, sabi niya ‘wag ko daw pababayaan yung dalawang bata (He last called me on Monday, he told me to take care of our two children)," said Lourdes.The Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) said that Saudi Airlines personnel immediately notified them of the patient’s death, allowing them to also respond right away.“Ininform kami sa Saudi Airlines sa arrival, unang ginawa namin, siyempre may sundo siya eh so hinanap namin (The Saudi Airlines informed us of his arrival, what we did first was look for the people who were waiting for him in the airport)," Antonio Sanchez of OWWA told GMA News.Sanchez said they will also help Llorente’s family with his papers.In 2008, a Saipan-bound Filipino worker also died while he was still on board an aircraft because of a heart attack.