CHENNAI:Shifted to Udhavum Karangal’s Chennai facility a little after midnight, Dutch national, Arena, who was assaulted in Tiruvannamalai recently, reconnected with her mother over the telephone.
After they gave her sedatives and induced her to eat, social workers were able to procure her mother’s phone number from her.
“She gave us a number and when we tried it we got through. Very reluctantly, she spoke to her mother and told her a little bit about where she was but didn’t touch on the drugs or the psychotic behaviour,” said the social worker handling her case.
The 36-year-old lady was rescued from four assailants by the Tiruvannamalai district authorities and handed over to the NGO. After a brief fracas, the order was passed to transfer her to Chennai and she was brought to the city at night. The violence that she exhibited in the days leading to her transfer appear to have subsided, but volunteers are still wary, having seen what she is capable of.
While the mother seemed keen to have her daughter back, Arena didn’t appear to be happy with that idea. “All she did through the day was ask to be let out the rehab centre and kept threatening to harm herself if she wasn’t let out,” he added. However, after examining her symptoms, the doctor believes that she has some form of depression and has prescribed a lower drug load to keep her in check.
With the Dutch embassy having promised to help at the earliest, the NGO is hopeful of repatriating her to her family soon. Until then, they are affording the heavy drug user only one vice as a special condition. “She gets an occasional beedi because the doctor felt she needed a weaning off period lest she injure herself even more,” he said.