A 72-year-old COVID-19 positive man in Chennai has been missing for over 12 days after he was taken to a government hospital for admission.
According to a New Indian Express report, Adikesavan had tested positive for the deadly virus on June 10 and was taken for a screening the following day by the corporation officials to a centre in Ekkaduthangal. He was then sent to the Kilpauk Medical College Hospital along with five others. He did not have a mobile phone with him at that time.
The sanitary inspector at KMC had confirmed to Adikesavan’s son that he was in the hospital bed. The inspector also said that he had dropped the patients (including Adikesavan) at the queue in the X-ray section and then left.
‘We receive a list of people admitted in various Government Hospitals from the screening center and not from the Hospitals. Whenever his son would ask me I would contact another COVID-19 patient who was accommodated along with Adikesavan. As he said the elderly person was there I too trusted him and let his son know,’ the inspector was quoted as saying.
Adikesavan’s son had then sent a picture of his father to the fellow patient who then stated that his father was not in the same room. No record of Adikesavan’s admission was found later on.
‘The elderly person did not come inside our campus. If he had come there would be some proof of it. There are three different registers we maintain to monitor the COVID-19 patients and his name is not in any of those. He might have gone missing on the way or before entering the premises,’ Dr P Vasanthamani, Dean of KMC said.
A complaint has been lodged at the St Thomas Mount police station by the son. He was then sent to the Kilpauk police station where an FIR was finally lodged after two days.
