Mumbai hospital reunites Howrah boy with family

Mumbai: He had fled his Howrah home 13 months ago to explore the City of Dreams, but the 14-year-old's Mumbai trip turned into a nightmare when he fell off a local train and had to have his left leg amputated. Back home in Howrah, Afroz Shaikh's family had almost lost hopes of his return, but when his maternal uncle and aunt saw their beloved nephew returning home after 13-odd months, they could not believe their eyes and broke into tears of joy.

Afroz and his family said they cannot thank social activists and St George Hospital authorities enough for not only taking care of the boy's medication but also ensuring that he was reunited with his family.

"I always wanted to come to Mumbai and someone told me that the Gitanjali Express goes there. So, one fine morning, I sneaked out of my home and boarded the train that would take me to the City of Dreams. Once I landed in the island city, I started roaming around in local trains. But, one day I fell off the train near Masjid station and lost my left leg. I felt everything was over, but the police were kind enough to take me to a hospital," recalled Afroz.

The Railway police rushed Afroz to St George Hospital, where doctors had to amputate his left leg below the knee owing to the injury. Dr Vijay Patil, who was treating Afroz, said, "Toes of the right foot fingers had to be amputated along with the left leg as his injuries were severe and could have caused infection. The wound on the right leg was taking time to heal and thus hospitalisation was prolonged."  Afroz was in the hospital for nearly 13 months. Since Afroz did not have any relatives in the city to care for him, all the medicines and surgical procedures were funded by charitable organisation working in tandem with the hospital.

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"He required antibiotics and clothes for which I approached various trusts, which helped him in cash and kind. He had become a darling of the members of charitable foundations who would often come to see him at the hospital," said Dattatray Vibhute, a medical social worker at St George hospital, who mobilised funds to the tune of Rs 50,000 for Afroz's treatment.

Afroz had also become a darling of doctors, nurses and the ward boys who would tolerate all his tantrums without a fuss. "Aware of his age and what he had gone through, we knew that he required counseling. I would sit with him and try to understand what he needed. He had no interest in studies but was smart and he had picked up some Mumbai slang. As he knew the hospital inside out, sometimes he would sit on his wheelchair near the casualty ward and help direct patients," said Vibhute.

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Afroz's treatment was completed three months ago and he could have been discharged then. The doctors and social workers could have sent him to a children's home and washed their hands off the responsibility, but they thought it was their duty to reunite the estranged boy with his family. "I checked with the various trusts and found that Jeevan Jyot trust had a branch in Kolkata. Since Afroz could not recall the postal address or any landmark near his home, we decided to send him to Kolkata from where he could be rehabilitated easily," said Vibhute.

H V Savla, who works with  Jeevan Jyot, said, "Our volunteers accompanied him to Kolkata. We took him in a local train on the Howrah route. When he saw a particular station, he recalled the directions to his home. The family was utterly surprised to see Afroz again. They told our volunteers that they had lost hopes that he would ever return."

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Hafiz Sheikh, Afroz's uncle who is a rickshaw puller in Howrah, said, "We are thankful to the people of Mumbai who took care of our boy. We had lost all hope and were convinced that he would never return. He has come home thanks to God."