July 6: More than a fortnight after a patient was reported missing from the LTMG hospital at Sion, neither the hospital authorities nor the Matunga Police have any clue to his whereabouts. As reported in Express Newsline on Tuesday, the patient, Sarfaraz Khan (32), a train accident victim, was found missing from the hospital on June 15.

While Khairunnisa Khan, Sarfaraz's mother, has alleged that her son was mistreated by Dr Rajeev Thukral, a resident doctor who attended to him, the doctor has denied the charge. Khairunnisa has also alleged that the doctor asked her to pay Rs 6,000 towards her son's treatment. But, the doctor claims that all he asked her to do was replace the blood given to Sarfaraz and buy some antibiotics and a TB medicine. The doctor, in fact claimed that when he spoke to Khairunnisa about the replacement of blood and the medicines, she said that she was ``just a neighbour of Sarfaraz.''

Meanwhile, an internal enquiry by Dr Changlani, head of department, surgery, is likely to go slow as he is awaiting the police enquiry report. The Matunga police investigating the case, however, have made no headway either. Khan has not shown up in any of the general hospitals including GTB hospital. Which is surprising because he needs regular dressing of his wound and is also an open case of tuberculosis. All police stations have also been informed about Khan, said police sources.

The patient was last seen at the operation theatre on the night of June 14 where he was taken to get his dressing changed by Dr Thukral. After the dressing, the doctor went back to the ward where he asked the ward's staff nurse to send a ward boy to bring the patient back. He later retired to the RMO quarters.

Dr Thukral said it was only when he visited the ward the next morning that he found the patient missing. ``The night staff had not informed me. They gave some vague reasons for their lapse.'' However, Dr Thukral made one mistake, which he repents now. He gave Rs 60 to an unknown person who volunteered to `take care' of the patient while his dressing was being changed.

The patient, who was admitted to the hospital by the Kurla police on June 10, was visited by Khairunnisa on June 13 for the first time. ``She said she was his mother. I was glad, since a relative is needed and the ward boys cannot take care of all the needs of the patient,'' said Dr Thukral. ``Moreover, Khan used to soil his bed (he was kept on the floor) and not inform the staff.'' While the doctor asked Khairunisa to buy the medicines on June 13, she did not visit Sarfaraz on June 14, the day he went missing, Dr Thukral said. However, the next day she arrived with a group of people ``as if she was expecting trouble.''

Dr Thukral said Sarfaraz had wanted to go to Hyderabad ever since he regained consciousness after the operation. ``He used to say all his relatives are there.''

So, while mystery still shrouds the missing patient, the young resident doctor finds himself caught in a controversy.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.