Image provides clue to help reunite mentally ill man with family 

He is now on a 49-hour-long journey back home

A word that sounded like “Paneri” was the only thing that a 30-year-old man, who was brought in as a wandering mentally ill person to the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), could say. Doctors decided to look it up on the internet, but they were unsure of its destination State. But it was an image of a tea estate that turned into a pointer for them to trace and re-unite the man with his family.

Now, the man accompanied by a hospital staff has embarked on a 49-hour-long train journey from Chennai to his home, nearly 2,700 kilometres away in Assam.

“It was during the second week of April that police brought him to IMH after they found him wandering near the harbour. He was dehydrated and disoriented. After first-aid, we referred him to the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, where he was treated in the intensive care [unit]. He had withdrawal symptoms,” S. Bevin, assistant professor of IMH, said.

Back at IMH, the man was confused about his name and was able to say a word that sounded like “Paneri”. “He had delirium and mere traces of memory. He understood a little Hindi. We were unsure of his pronunciations. We tried to look up the name and found places in two States– Bihar and Assam– with different spellings. We found an image of a tea estate in Paneri, Assam, and showed it to him. That was when he nodded. Usually, we ask patients for landmarks such as railway stations, schools, and food they have. So, this made it clear that this was Paneri in Assam, he added.

He told doctors of a river and a police station in Kamrup. “We kept trying to reach the police station in Kamrup for a day to check for complaints of missing persons but the phone numbers found online were wrong. We got the phone number of a district official of Kamrup, who spoke in Tamil, and told us that Paneri was in Udalguri district,” he said.

The IMH team connected with district officials and the social welfare department was roped in. “Meanwhile, the man was improving with treatment and was able to pronounce his name properly. We gave his name and photograph to the social welfare team, who traced his family through the anganwadi staff,” he said.