A hospital in Orissa is facing a bizarre problem: a woman in her 80s admitted almost two years ago refuses to go home even though her broken leg was mended a long time ago.
According to hospital officials, Jangyaseni Sa, 75, was admitted in the 164-bed Bolangir government hospital in January 2003 after she fractured her right leg in an accident.
She recovered in four months, but refused to be discharged. The hospital authorities have been pleading with her in vain for the 18 months to leave but Sa has stayed put.
Keeping Sa company is her 30-year-old daughter.
According to Bolangir's chief medical officer Narayan Chandra Dash, a complaint was made to the police earlier this year and the duo were taken to their village but soon returned to the hospital.
"She is asking us to help her financially, claiming that she is poor and cannot survive if she leaves hospital. She also clams that she has borrowed money from some residents of her village which she wants us to repay," Dash added.
"She is also asking us to arrange the marriage of her daughter since she is old and cannot do this on her own," he said.
The hospital long ago stopped supplying her food but this has not had any impact on the mother-daughter duo, who make do by begging for scraps from other patients and their guardians.
"She has become a headache for us. We don't know how to deal with her," an exasperated Dash said.
--Indo-Asian News Service