CHENNAI: A 74-year-old man who tested positive for coronavirus in Chennai has been missing for over 12 days after being taken to a government hospital for admission.
The man, Adikesavan, tested positive for coronavirus on June 10 and was taken for a screening the next day by corporation officials to a centre in Ekkaduthangal and subsequently to Kilpauk Medical College Hospital.
He was taken along with five others but he did not have a mobile phone with him.
Meanwhile, Adikesavan's son, was under the impression that his father was at KMC as the sanitary inspector confirmed that he was in the hospital bed.
The inspector also claimed to have 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," said the inspector.
Sensing suspicion, Adikesavan's son sent a picture of his father to the fellow patient who then confirmed that his father was not in the same room and it was later found that there was no record of Adikesavan being admitted to the hospital at all.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, Dr P Vasanthamani, Dean of KMC said, "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."
The son has since lodged a complaint at the St Thomas Mount police station from where he was sent to the Kilpauk police station and an FIR was finally lodged after two days.
(If you receive any information about Adikesavan, please call on - 7418975507)