Thiruvananthapuram: Forty-two individuals are residing in the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital as 'castaways'. Expectations that their near and dear ones would take them home have been shattered.
Retired government officials, former advocates, and daily wage workers are among them. One can spot a 30-year-old man, paralysed and bed-ridden, and an 80-year-old weakened by age here. The bitter truth dawned on them after months of wait– no one was coming.
Such incidents are a disgrace to the state of Kerala, which boasts of of a high human development index and milestones in education and health. On the World Human Rights Day, we outline some of the shocking cases in the state:
He has three children; four, if the adopted daughter is also included. When he was bed-ridden in the hospital after a fracture in the thigh bone, there was no one to look after him. The 70-year-old is unsure where he would go after he is discharged from the hospital (he requested that his name and address should not be revealed. His concern for the children is unfailing).
There are many here who painted colourful lives for their children by using up all their money. Even as he grimaces in pain, a grandfather was concerned that no one should face ignominy because of him despite the fact that his leg was broken by his granddaughter’s husband in a property dispute.
A person who has five children is also in the hospital. Not one of them arrived to take him home. There are 16 such abandoned persons in the orthopedic department alone. Some of them were injured at work sites and brought here by co-workers. There are also persons who were lying on the road after being injured and brought here by some stranger. Though the hospital authorities had traced the address and contacted relatives, no one turned up.
How long can the hospital continue to accommodate the abandoned patients when even the verandas are overflowing with admitted patients?
However, the authorities of the medical college have set an example by deploying 10 members of the nursing staff to look after them. Doctors and nurses buy food for them in turns.
18 persons to be moved to Ashraya
Dr A Nizaruddin, Medical College Superintendent, wrote letters to all well-known old age homes after realising that no one would come to take the patients home.
Only the Ashraya Trust of Kottarakkara responded positively. Ashraya director Kalayapuram Jose said that they would take 18 patients. Eight of them are bed-ridden.