Going beyond the call of duty, these doctors in Kashmir are helping lost patients find their families

Young doctors in the Government Psychiatric Hospital have become messiahs for non-Kashmiri patients abandoned in the Kashmir Valley. Last month, the doctors traced the family of Mathur Bhai Padhiyar in Gujarat. Mathur Bhai was found abandoned in Srinagar nine years ago suffering from schizophrenia. Ever since, he was being taken care at this hospital and now has received an emotional farewell, stated a report in India Today.

Now, these doctors have embarked on another mission-to rehabilitate two non-Kashmiri girls, who have no idea of where they come from. “There are three of them. One we now know is from Kupwara. The others are non-local. They may have come here for work. They aren’t telling us exactly where they are from. We are trying,” Dr Mansoor Ahmad Dar, registrar of the hospital said.

One of the girls was brought to the hospital two years ago in a very bad condition. She had a leg injury and mental illness. The doctors at one point thought they may have to amputate her leg. But nurses took such good care that her leg was saved. “When she was brought to hospital, it was night and I was on duty. I clearly remember what condition she was in. One would have thought she would not survive,” said a nurse.

The girls are better now. They can go home and that is where the challenge lies for the doctors. They keenly watch and note down when these girls talk, use the internet or make random phone calls. Dr Mansoor is trying the same tricks that worked last time when he got success in tracing a patient’s family in Uttarakhand. “Tripathi’s case was miraculous. Once we tried a new drug with him, he showed good results. He started talking. He was telling things in bits and pieces. I noted them down and used the internet to search the places he had mentioned. I made scores of phone calls and found out he was from Uttrakhand. We managed to trace his family like that. It was technology and hard work all together,” says Dr Mansoor.

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