Hughes death caused by 'neglect, dehydration’

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34130, 17 April 1976, Page 15

Hughes death caused by 'neglect, dehydration’

(N Z P A -Reuter—Copyright)

ACAPULCO (Mexico), April 16. Howard Hughes, whose estate is estimated to he worth $1968 million, died of neglect, according to a Mexican physician who was ■ called to examine the recluse in Acapulco a few ! hours before his death, United Press International reported.

Dr V. Montemayor Marti-] nez. in an interview with; the Mexico City newspaper; “El Sol De Mexico,” said he found Hughes unconscious,] his body covered with sores' and consisting of “nothing more than skin and bones.” There were four American doctors in attendance but Hughes was not getting the medical attention he needed, the Mexican said.

“Howard Hughes died of a sickness called neglect,” he said. He said he expressed his dissatisfaction to the Americ-m doctors when he saw the billionaire shortly before he was put aboard a chartered jet for Houston on April 5 in a futile effort to save his life. Hughes was dead when the plane reached that city. “Seuor Hughes was nothing more than skin and bones. He was suffering from extreme dehydration and he had sores all over his body, his eyes and extremities were paralysed, and there was bleeding from a wound on the left side of his head, apparently from an open benign tumor.” Angered by what he found, Dr Montemayor said he criticised the American doctors present. “I asked them to explain to me why they h ad not taken him to the Houston Medical Center which Hughes owned,” Montemayor said. “I also warned them that if he got any less medical attention he 'would die within two or three hours.” ]

Intending to leave his fortune to a medical foundation,

Hughes wrote a will, put it

together in secret, and placed it in a Hollywood safe deposit box, his former top assistant said today, the Associated Press reported from Los Angeles. “That will is in existence,”

said Mr N. Dietrich, who left Mr Hughes’ employ in 1957 after 35 years of service. “I don’t know what happened to it. I don’t trust some of these people at the Hughes organisation.” Mr Dietrich said Mr Hughes wrote the will himself. “About 1955, he made out the will. There were five alternative pages for every page. He selected the final ones he wanted to use, stapled a blue back’ on them, sealed them in an envelope and gave it to Nadine Henley.”

Mrs Henley is an officer of the Summa Corporation, the holding company for Mr Hughes’ vast enterprises, and was a trusted associate of Mr Hughes. Howard Hughes’ elderly aunt and her son have been named by the Harris County Probate Court to be temporary administrators of his estate, the Associated Press reported. At the same time, the Summa Corporation of Los Angeles said in a formal statement that Hughes probably had executed an effective will, although none had been found. A search for a will would continue and the Texas Commerce Bank of Houston will hold certain unspecified Houston assets of Hughes in the interim.

The size of the Hughes’ estate will not be known until his 1975 income tax returns are filed, but previous reports have indicated that the estate amounts to $1476m to $2362m.