Unstable man kills self after hospital wait

A 30-year-old man was found hanging from a tree after he was brought to Rajawadi Hospital in Ghatkopar on Sunday night with complaints of fever and clenched teeth.

Sanjay Yampalkar, a resident of Kannamwar Nagar, Vikhroli, was brought to the hospital’s casualty ward at 9.30pm. He was referred to the psychiatry department after tests found him to be mentally unstable. However, before the doctor came to visit him, he went missing.

“The casualty medical officer on duty Dr Sarmishta Lokhande gave Yampalkar an injection for fever and referred him to the psychiatry department. When he went missing from the psychiatry ward, the hospital staff along with the family started looking for him frantically but could not find him. After an hour’s search, a hospital security staff member who was on a routine round, found him hanging from a tree behind the hospital. He had used his shirt as a rope,” said Dr Manohar Bhaskar, medical superintendent, Rajawadi Hospital. Yampalkar was declared dead on the spot and the body was sent immediately for post mortem.

While hospital authorities are saying that Yampalkar went missing from the psychiatric ward, his family claims that they were made to wait for an unreasonably long time. “We waited for a long time, after which a staff member told us that all the doctors were busy. We decided to come back the next morning, and I went to look for an autorickshaw. When I returned, he was missing,” said Yampalkar’s brother-in-law Arun Gaikwad.