COIMBATORE: The Emergency Care and Recovery Centre (ECRC) in the Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) has successfully reunited two destitute individuals with their families, following treatment over the last two months. One of them is a Haryana native.
Hospital authorities said that they have been taking efforts to identify families of the other inmates and reunite them after treatment for their mental and physical illnesses.
The ECRC was established at CMCH on June 15 at a cost of Rs 8 lakh and has been managed by the NGO Helping Hearts with CSR support. The volunteers of the NGO rescue the destitute individuals with physical and mental illnesses wandering on the streets. The 15-bed centre offers medical assistance to overcome trauma. After recovery, they would be allowed to stay at government-run homes and reunite with their families if someone recalls details of their family.
A 45-year-old Hindi-speaking man was rescued on June 27 near RS Puram. As he was mentally ill, he was admitted to the ECRC, where he received treatment for a month. Slowly, he recollected his name, Aravindkumar, and his native state as Haryana. After checking these details with the Haryana police, they confirmed that he was mentally ill and had gone missing from Riwari district in Haryana a few months ago.
"Wandering at the railway station, he had mistakenly boarded a train and somehow landed in Coimbatore. Without knowing the city, he had stayed on the streets from where he was rescued by the volunteers," M Ganesh, founder of Helping Hearts, said.
"After confirming his identity, we contacted his family. Though they felt happy knowing his status, they were unable to reach Coimbatore to get him back to their native due to their financial situation. Knowing it, we arranged air travel. On August 28, he was taken to Delhi by our volunteer and handed over to his family. Similarly, another inmate, Saravanakumar from Pollachi, who was rescued from Ramanathapuram on July 20, was also reunited with his family on August 13," Ganesh added.