04 March,2010 08:37 AM IST | | Amit Singh
Thakur Lal disappeared on February 27 while his attendant was on a loo break
It's a classic medical mystery that has baffled both doctors and the police. An immobile paralytic disappears from a hospital in Anand Vihar when his attendant goes on a ten-minute bathroom break! Five days later, the police are still groping in the dark.
This is the bed where Havaldar Thakur Lal sleptu00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0u00a0
On January 23, Thakur Lal (40), an ex-hawaldar in the Indian Army, suffered partial paralysis of the right side of his body, and was declared immobile. The base military hospital in Delhi referred him to Jain Hospital at Anand Vihar, where he was admitted on February 26. A day later, he vanished without a trace.
Jitram, who was attending to the patient that night, said, "At 5:30 in the morning, Lal asked me to take him to the bathroom. After that, he asked for a glass of water and then he went to bed. Thereafter, I went to freshen up and when I came back I was shocked. I found him missing from the bed. I immediately alerted his brother, Mohan Singh, who was sleeping in the waiting room. However, he too was clueless. We searched the entire hospital campus for three hours but couldn't find him."
Finally, a PCR call was made at around 8 in the morning and a complaint was registered at the Anand Vihar police station.u00a0 A senior police official said, "We are investigating the matter but have not managed to get any clues. He was in depression and may be he walked out of the hospital himself."
The family members of the missing paralytic have expressed dissatisfaction with the attitude of the police and the hospital management.
"The police said that they don't have so much time and we should look for the patient ourselves. We are also being forced to sign the discharge papers. However, we have refused to do so," said his brother.
When MiD DAY contacted Dr Anil Kumar Jain, the owner of the hospital, he said, "The patient walked away himself from the hospital. He had some problem in his brain. Our work is to provide treatment to the patient, not security. We have got the CCTV footage and if demanded by the police, we will provide it to them."
Lal had suffered a brain haemorrhage because of high blood pressure and the right side of his body was paralysed. He was taken to a private hospital in Jaipur and was discharged after receiving some treatment. A month later, his condition started deteriorating. He was taken to a military hospital in Bharatpur, from where he was referred to the military base hospital in Delhi.
