GH readmits man after protest

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In a deplorable case of apathy, a 45-year-old disabled, destitute man was thrown out of the Chromepet General Hospital, three days after a kind stranger, an American tourist, had admitted him to the hospital.

The victim, Ravi, was spotted lying on the footpath outside the GH for two days, covered in flies and exposed to the rain and the daytime heat. After the media intervened and questioned the superintendent on Friday, hospital staff re-admitted the man.

According to eyewitnesses, the man was lying outside the National Siddha Institute on GST road for several days. On July 21, an American tourist named Austin happened to spot the man when he was travelling in an MTC bus.

The American got off the bus and bought a bottle of water, which he offered to the half-conscious man. He also washed his face, bought him some clothes and called the 108-ambulance service to shift him to the closest hospital. He saw that the hospital admitted the man, and left.

On July 24, passers-by and auto drivers from the locality were surprised to see the man lying outside the hospital. When they questioned the hospital staff, they were curtly told to mind their own business. “One nurse told me that the man had stolen from the other patients in the ward, and that he left on his own accord.

This is impossible as the man’s legs are badly deformed and he cannot walk. He is so weak that he cannot even crawl or drag himself up,” said an autorickshaw driver, who informed this newspaper about the man’s plight.

When contacted, superintendent of the hospital Dr Sundari said she knew nothing about the incident as she was in Kancheepuram for a meeting.

She denied that the hospital staff drove the man out. The hospital’s admission register however, read that Ravi had been admitted on July 21 and ‘went missing’ from the diarrhea ward on July 24.

While it is hospital protocol to lodge a police complaint when a patient goes missing, the police outpost at the hospital has neither received a complaint about a missing patient, nor about a thieving one.

After a group of reporters grilled the hospital staff about the man’s condition, the nursing staff was sent with a wheelchair to bring him into the hospital, where he was left on the floor of the casualty ward.