These good Samaritans offer much-needed succour to patients in need

Kasaragod: Reports of patients abandoned by their near and dear ones are unsettling. But there have been umpteen instances when strangers offer much-needed succuor to such hapless individuals. A ward boy named Sundaran and a senior citizen named Devassykutty are among the good Samaritans who take care of patients, some lonely or abandoned, who require personal attention in two hospitals in Kerala.

Sundaran works as a temporary employee at Kasaragod Government Hospital. It was here he was brought in years ago from a roadside in Adoor (in Kasaragod). The 10-year-old boy who suffered from a serious bout of seizure was apparently abandoned.

Today, this hospital is his treatment and care centre, his house and his workplace. When the erstwhile Taluk Hospital was upgraded to a General Hospital in 2008, Sundaran was included in the list of hospital staff with the approval of then Health Minister P K Sreemathy. Monthly pay of Rs 1,500 is being given from the Hospital Management Committee fund.

Sundaran helps every person who reaches the hospital in some way or the other. He stays here with the love and care of the nurses and doctors at the hospital. He still gets epileptic seizures and is given medicines every time he gets one. At night, he sleeps on a vacant bed in the ward or on the floor.

Though his speech is not proper and clear, the doctors and nurses here clearly understand what he communicates. Sundaran’s eyes reach every nook and corner of the hospital. He goes along with the doctors during their ward rounds.

He happily undertakes any work here. This includes taking documents to different sections, including the diet sheets, and going as a helper with the staff who serve food to the patients

Devassykutty stands by lone patients
Alappuzha: Many patients in the Alappuzha Medical College don't have bystanders to lend them a helping hand. Alappuzha Poonkavu native Velimparambil Devassykutty reaches out to be those patients who are all alone. He gives them food, cleans them up and gives a hope that they will recover soon. He has been doing this without breaks for the past 32 years.

“I am 67. There was time when I lived lavishly; but fell on hard times after getting into vices. Belief in God transformed me. Now, I visit each ward at the hospital in the morning. I bring some bread and boiled milk from home. There are people who wait for that,” Devassykutty narrates.

He has also readied four beds at his house at Poonkavu to serve as a temporary shelter for those who have none to take them home once discharged from the hospital. Devassykutty’s wife Mariamma takes care of those who reach there.

The couple’s son Shaji, daughter-in-law Lisy and granddaughter Gloria, a Class-10 student, are all there to help.