KOLKATA: A housewife, rendered disabled following an accident, has been "abandoned" at Apollo Multispeciality Hospitals for over two years, with no one taking her back home. Her husband, who was produced in court by the Amherst Street police station, submitted his inability to take care of her.

The woman has lost her speech and the lower portion of her body has been paralysed.
Justice Amrita Sinha asked the husband the reason behind him not taking his wife back home. The man said he was a shop owner and didn't have the means to provide care to his disabled wife. The counsel for the private hospital submitted that the hospital treated her, conducted multiple surgeries and her insurance amount of Rs 6 lakh exhausted long ago. The counsel said the present outstanding amount was Rs 1 crore. The hospital moved court, expressing its inability to take the patient's responsibility any more.
The hospital's counsel submitted that the husband started an "alternative family".
Justice Sinha, however, didn't get into family matters. The state counsel submitted that the state had shelters with free services. But the state-run shelter employees didn't have the expertise to care for ailing patients.
Justice Sinha directed the advocate-general to appear on this matter on April 9, inform them if the state had any regulation for such people and suggest a remedy. The court also directed the husband to be present in court that day.
According to sources, the woman, in her 40s, was hospitalised by her husband in Sept 2021 with a head injury. She underwent numerous surgeries, including a life-saving neurosurgery. She survived but the injury left her immobile and with a tracheostomy. Despite her stable condition, her husband, Jaiprakash Gupta, refused to take her home.
When several reminders to Gupta failed to evoke any response, the hospital approached the West Bengal Clinical Establishment Regulatory Commission in May last year. TOI reported that after Gupta failed to appear for health panel's the hearing, Justice (Retd) Ashim Kumar Banerjee told Apollo it was a fit case to approach courts.
At present, the patient is accommodated in a general bed in the hospital's neurosurgery department and is being looked after by nurses in turns. "Salute to our nurses who have been looking after her like their own kith and kin as the injury left her immobile. But this woman needs the warmth, love and care of her family," said a hospital official.