A Chilean man believed to be the world's oldest person has died in hospital at the age of 121. Celino Villanueva Jaramillo, who was thought to have been born on 25 July 1896, died on Wednesday in the southern town of San José de Mariquina.
Mr Villanueva fell out of bed a week before his death, breaking three ribs, one of which pierced a lung. Despite an emergency operation and intensive care, his condition deteriorated, and a priest was called to deliver the last rites on Tuesday.
Ivonne Morales, who together with her mother Marta Ramírez had adopted Mr Villanueva when he was 99 and destitute, expressed her sadness. 'He was an integral part of our family, the man of the house,' she said.
Although recognised by Chilean President Sebastián Piñera as the country's oldest citizen, Mr Villanueva never received specialist care, and his adoptive family received no institutional support. In an interview earlier this year, Ms Ramírez, 85, said she would not place him in a care home, believing he would not survive.
Mr Villanueva, a farm worker who never married and had no known living relatives, will be buried on Friday morning in the Indigenous Cemetery of Mehuín.
