The odour of bandaged wounds is the first sensation that is experienced when one sets foot in ward number 4 at JJ Hospital. At the end of this ward lies Hema Mohanty, a patient who receives no visitors or well-wishers. The 26-year-old can be seen reeling in pain with blood oozing from her left leg, which has rotted away due to gangrene. Ms Mohanty is in need of immediate surgery to stop the infection from spreading all over her body. And in addition to her agony, she has come to grips with the fact that it was her own husband who had abandoned her here.
“She was brought to the hospital in the first week of December last year for treatment. But now, we can’t track her husband. Earlier, when we called the registered phone number, it was ringing but now the phone has been switched off. At present, a police case will be registered and if her husband is still not found, she will be declared ‘abandoned’,” said Dr Abhishek, a medical officer at the hospital.
Like Ms Mohanty, every week, the hospital receives one to two such patients whose families abandon them after admitting them to the hospital for treatment. There are around 35 such patients currently living in the hospital at the mercy of its staff.
“It is a common happening in the hospital. As we are a government hospital, we can’t deny any patient admission. So once a patient is admitted, the family members leave them alone and flee. And we keep them until they recover,” said Dr T.P. Lahane, dean of the hospital.
Families mostly abandon patients who have low chances of recovery. “In fact, in many cases, they provide wrong data in the patients’ information paper while admitting them so that we can’t track them,” said Dr Lahane.
In ward 7, there is a 13-year-old child with a mental disorder who has also been abandoned by his family. He was taken to the hospital in November 2015 for treatment, but his father did not return for him.
“The child was admitted to the hospital by his father who brought him from Aurangabad for treatment. He is suffering from Altered Sensorium and needs help with minor tasks like eating or going to the washroom. Since the time of his abandonment, we have been taking care of him,” said Jyoti, a nurse who is one of the staff members that are taking care of the child.
Every year, the hospital receives hundreds of abandoned patients across Maharashtra and neighbouring states. Also, the ratio of abandonment of women is higher than that of men.
“More than 70 per cent of abandoned patients are women. A sick woman with no security in her life is considered a burden on her family so they leave them,” said another nurse.
When The Asian Age spoke to Ms Mohanty, she said that her husband — Rajesh, a 29-year-old resident of Kalyan — had packed her bags and took her to the hospital, but she had never thought that he would flee within two days.
“My leg has rotted due to the infection so there is no other option but to amputate it. This will make me disabled, and my husband didn’t want to live with a handicapped woman. Maybe that’s why he left me,” said to Ms Mohanty.
When asked what she would do after getting discharged, she said, “I know my address but I don’t want to go back as they will never accept me without a leg. So, I don’t know where I will go. I might have to beg on roadside to survive,” she said.
Such cases are not unprecedented at JJ Hospital. Many of the abandoned discharged patients, who have nowhere to go, start living on the hospital’s premises, as it becomes their second home.
Mahendra, a 62 year old, was abandoned by his family a year ago, when he was diagnosed with a kidney tumour. He has recovered perfectly after the surgery but has not returned home. “I was left here by my own child, so why should I go back to them when they didn’t care for me. Now, this hospital’s premises is my home and I have also other abandoned patients to keep me company,” he said.
