ELLIOT SPAGAT
Associated Press
ROSARITO BEACH, Mexico - The Mexican clinic where Coretta Scott King died Tuesday was known for providing alternative treatments to patients with incurable diseases.
King, 78, suffered a serious stroke and heart attack last year, but her family and clinic employees declined to release any information about her treatment at the Santa Monica Health Institute.
Bishop T.D. Jakes of The Potter's House church in Dallas said he helped King get to Mexico, but he didn't know what kind of treatment she was seeking.
"Mrs. King was very health conscious, even before she got ill. I'm not surprised that she would explore every possible way of seeking treatment," Jakes said.
King died at 1 a.m. Tuesday, said Lorena Blanco, a spokeswoman for the U.S. consulate in Tijuana.
U.S. Embassy officials will work with the King family to ensure that their interaction with Mexican authorities is as smooth as possible - something they do whenever a U.S. citizen dies abroad, said Julia Tully, a spokeswoman at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City.
King's daughters Bernice and Yolanda were at the hospital, where Mexican authorities told the family there is a legal requirement that King's body be embalmed before it is brought back to the United States, according to King's sister, Edythe Scott Bagley of Cheyney, Penn.
She said the family is complying and that it expects the body to be released later Tuesday.
"I do know that the body is going to be embalmed and the body and the children will be coming in tonight," said Bagley, who spoke with Yolanda King at the hospital.
Bagley also said that Mexican authorities were being cooperative with the family.
Mexican officials were not immediately available to comment.
Located 16 miles south of San Diego in Rosarito Beach, Mexico, the Santa Monica Health Institute says on its Web site that it uses an eclectic approach to diseases that are often believed to be incurable.
"The major patient clientele is comprised of cancer patients who have been told that there is no more hope, all traditional therapies having failed," it says.
The clinic says it also treats cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hepatitis C, arthritis, multiple sclerosis and other auto-immune diseases.
Employees answering the phone at the clinic's San Diego corporate offices refused to give out any information regarding patients.
www.macon.com
