Oct 4, 2011
MADURAI:
In the twilight of their lives, they have been abandoned in hospital by relatives who are either unable to care for them or don't want to shoulder responsibility.
Octogenarian S Vellaimmal, a resident of Manchanaickanpatti on the outskirts of Madurai, can barely remember any thing. Her daughter is alive but has left her at the government owned Rajaji Hospital, say the staff. The case of M.Vasantha (75) of Madurai is similar. So is that of Damodharan (60) of Valliyur, who is bed-ridden and has lost his vision and speech. They were all in hospital for a month and after their relatives could not be traced, were shifted to an old age home.
M Gopalakrishnan, a Red Cross activist, said the trend of aged people being abandoned in hospitals by families, who admit them into outpatient wards and depart on the sly, is clearly on the rise.
"Since 2008, we have rescued 127 unknown patients. Either we reunite them with their families if they remember them or we are forced to admit them to an old age home. Last week we rescued seven old people and sent four of them to an old age home," he added.
A Harikrishnan, another activist, said relatives who accompany old people to the hospital often leave after submitting fake addresses. "In many cases, the children of these old people are steeped in poverty," he said.
Dr Prahadeesawaran, resident medical officer of Rajaji Hospital said: "The abandonment of elderly people is a headache for us. It is painful to note that their sons themselves bring them by auto and leave them in outpatient wards on the sly. We recently caught a person who tried to leave his parent. When we nabbed him, he claimed he was a passerby and had found the old person and brought him here. "
"Most of them are found in a starving condition. If they are sick we put them in the casualty ward and we try to give maximum medical support," and later shift them to either reunite them with their children or send them to an old age home," Dr Pragadeesawaran said.
Fr. R.V. Thomas Rathapillil, Founder, St. Joseph's Hospice, Dindigul which runs the old age home laments that while the country is on the one hand becoming richer on the other hand the poor are becoming poorer and perhaps driving them to the desperate act of abandoning their parents in this manner. He feels the new menace is a result of the booming economy which has a flip side to it. "The poor can not accomodate their sick parents in their home and only the rich or relatively better off can afford to support their elderly," he observed.
SOURCE: The Times of India
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