Nobel Laureate Chemist Richard Heck, 84, Dies in Manila
By REUTERS

MANILA — American chemist and Nobel laureate Richard Heck died in Manila on Saturday after years of illnesses that left him almost penniless, relatives of his Filipina wife said on Saturday.

Heck, 84, along with Japanese Ei-ichi Negishi and Akira Suzuki, won the Nobel prize in chemistry in 2010 for inventing new ways to bind carbon atoms that were used in research to fight cancer and produce thin computer screens.

He was affiliated with the University of Delaware in the United States when he developed his work on palladium as a catalyst, called the Heck reaction, in the 1960s and early 1970s. The two Japanese scientists came through with their variants of the same process in the late 1970s.

He retired in the Philippines in 2006 along with his Filipina wife, Socorro Nardo-Heck. Socorro died two years after Heck won his Nobel prize, said Michael Nardo, Socorro’s nephew, who had been looking after Heck since his wife’s death. The couple was childless.

Heck was often depressed after his wife died, Nardo told Reuters. He had been in and out of the hospital since 2013, when he survived a serious bout of pneumonia.

“He lost almost half of his strength after the pneumonia episode,” Nardo said.

Heck survived prostate cancer and had been taking medication for diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and a slight dementia, Nardo said.

Two personal nurses took turns taking care of him in his home in recent months.

“It’s very sad. He was relying on his monthly pension of $2,500 to get by,” Nardo said.

Heck died in hospital after suffering a bout of severe vomiting earlier this week.

諾貝爾獎得主 竟然「窮死」…

2010年諾貝爾化學獎得主赫克（Richard Heck）9日在菲律賓離世，享壽84歲。有媒體披露，他數日前被送醫急救，因沒錢遭醫院拒收，才導致病情驟然惡化辭世。

「菲律賓每日詢問者報」今天報導，赫克9日因糖尿病與肝硬化等病症離開人世，昨天上午葬於大馬尼拉奎松市一座墓園，與2012年逝世的妻子比鄰。

報導說，和赫克對科學的偉大貢獻相比，他自2006年開始在菲律賓過著低調的生活，一直到2010年榮獲諾貝爾化學獎之前，菲國科學界都還不知道他的存在。

赫克因「有機合成的鈀催化交叉耦合」研究，於2010年和2名日本化學家，共同獲得諾貝爾化學獎。

但新聞網站Rappler引述赫克的私人看護指出，赫克數日前因嚴重嘔吐被送進一家高級私立醫院，但因「拖欠醫藥費」而被趕走。

私人看護說，他們不得己將赫克送到公立醫院，但過程中消耗掉太多時間，「他本來有機會被救活的」。

報導說，赫克靠著每個月2500美元的退休金在菲生活。

赫妻的外甥向菲國媒體坦承，因保險公司未繳清先前醫療費用而引起的「誤會」，迫使赫克在病危時轉院。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2015/10/10/world/asia/10reuters-nobel-prize-heck-philippines.html

2015-10-16 03:24:20 世界日報 編譯中心