A place where ‘unwanted’ elderly are taken care of
LUCKNOW: An elderly man, with mud on his face and a fractured hand, was spotted by a local at BBD-Matiyari Road on May 27.
A medical team of Aastha Geriatric Centre and Palliative Care treated him for the injuries. But the big question before the doctors was – who is this man? “We do not know who left him there and despite all efforts we could not find anyone searching for a missing man. Perhaps he was unwanted by his family,” said Dr Abhishek Shukla, director, Aastha Geriatric Centre.
Unable to tell anything about his family or his address, the man is being taken care of at Aastha.
“He has memory problem, probably some vehicle has hit him and he has suffered fracture on his left arm, and there is an open wound as well,” said
These cases could be of elderly abuse because all our attempts to look for their families could not yield results. We went to the police and informed them but the cops did not have any missing complaint which means these people were unwanted by their families Dr ABHISHEK SHUKLA, director, Aastha Geriatric Centre
Shukla.
But this was not the lone case of elderly abuse that came to Aastha. A few months ago, a woman picked up by Mahanagar police was brought here and she too was unable to tell her name.
“These cases could be of elderly abuse because all our attempts to look for their families could not yield result. We went to the police and informed them but the cops did not have any missing complaint which means these people are unwanted by their families,” added Shukla.
“If they were not unwanted, then there would have been some complaint by their families, which we could not find in the past couple of months,” he said.
For now, the rescued man has been named ‘Hari Shankar’ and is being taken care of by Aastha staff.
“In some cases, there are people who work abroad and we take of their parents’ medical needs. Such situation arises when the children cannot come here immediately,” said Shukla.