HIS eyes have sunk deep into the orbits, deep enough to hold tears, till they spill over his wrinkled face when he tries to turn towards the entrance of Emergency Ward at City’s SMHS Hospital. But every time he tries, he fails, expect for presumably getting a mere glimpse of anyone if there.
 He tries again, fails again because his body has gone so weak that his muscles don’t listen to him. In fact he is himself hard-of-hearing.
 His feebleness isn’t because of age alone: one side paralysis of his body and helplessness have added to his woes.
 His caretakers are sure that Mohi-Ud-Din hasn’t eaten anything for the past over a week when he was found lying in the hospital corridor.

LEFT UNATTENDED
 At first the people took him as some Dervish sleeping in the corridors while a bunch of ragged clothes covered him like a blanket. Some cops advised that the “Dervish” be sent to some shrine but he continued to remain in the corridors.
 Days went on. But as the old man didn’t move here and there, his immobility became conspicuous, more so, because he would prefer keeping his face covered with the ragged sweater, he was wearing.

FOUND HALF DEAD
 Some three days back, the volunteers of Help Poor Voluntary Trust(HPVT) who have been providing 24X7 free humanitarian services at the hospital took up the matter with the hospital administration.
 As the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Dr Altaf rushed to see the man, he was found to be in a critical condition. His clothes were flooded with urine and stools and he obviously smelled foul.
 The HPVT volunteers at once made him get a shower and changed his clothes. A barber was also called in for shave. “This old man looked in a state of shock as he couldn’t utter a word or hold himself,” recaps HPVT volunteer Muhammad Amin.

MEDICAL RECORDS
 Mohi-Ud-Din’s medical records vide MRD No 14213 reveal that the “elderly destitute was brought to us by CMO Dr Altaf and accompanied by HPVT personnel.”
 “He was having a high blood pressure 180/100 along with altered sensorium, which means he wasn’t responding to any commands, but only to painful stimulus,” explains a medico adding the man must have suffered the partial paralysis many years back due to “some haemorrhage”.
 For now, the patient is so weak that he can’t even digest any solid food and so is mostly living on dextrose. “Today we tried feeding him some Namkeen tea through nasal pipe,” said Sajad, a young volunteer looking after the old man.

WHO THIS OLD MAN IS?
 Who had brought this old man to the hospital and who he is? This question left everyone curious till he yesterday responded but only after repeated questions from the doctors and his caretakers that who he was and where he lives?
 Somehow, the patient mustered courage but to whisper mere two sentences. One his name Mohi-Ud-Din and the other his home: Soura.

THE IRONY
 On these two clues, and his photo, the HPVT team went out looking for his family so that they could be called to look after him. The team learnt that he wasn’t married but only had close relations through siblings. “We contacted them but nobody came forward to look after him and pleaded that they were overbusy,” the HPVT head Farooq Ahmed Bhat says adding one of them went to the extend saying they were busy with the demise of some relative and can come to see him only after the mourning is over.
 One of the close relatives had even said that Mohi-Ud-Din could be in such a condition because he was duped by someone who grabbed his property.
 “What ever the reality of his being a good or a bad man but the fact remains that he is on a deathbed… waiting for his nears and dears to look after him in these dying moments,” the volunteer adds.

BOTTOMLINE
 But is this old man really missing his nears and dears? Well, when he was asked this question, more of tears added to the pool into the orbits where eyes have sunk deep. And then he again tries to look towards the entrance, may be to see if someone known to him drops in. He fails again and looks towards the sky, hand folded. His feeble arms fail his hands and they fall back on his blanket covered body. Somehow he again tries to look towards the entrance only to make some more tears trickle down his wrinkled face!

Lastupdate on : Tue, 15 Nov 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Tue, 15 Nov 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:00:00 IST