Hospital officials appeal to relatives to claim “abandoned” patient

Nov 01, 2017 News

Winston Jeffrey was admitted to the Linden Hospital Complex on August 6, last. Before that he was a patient at the Kwakwani Hospital, but because of his unstable condition there, he was transferred to the Linden Hospital.
Between the two institutions, the man, believed to be in his late fifties or early sixties, has been hospitalized for multiple months. To date no one has visited him although he is currently in a stable condition and can in fact return to the care of relatives. But therein lies a challenge.
According to Public Relations Officer of the Linden Hospital Complex, Ms. Toshanna Allicock, the hospital is currently in a bind to return Jeffrey to his relatives. This situation exists not only because Jeffrey has not uttered a word since being admitted, but because the hospital currently has no record of any of his next of kin.
Efforts to secure information about Jeffrey’s relatives from the Kwakwani Hospital, too, have been futile, according to Allicock.
“We don’t even know if it was his relatives who had taken him to the hospital, because no one left any name when he was taken to the Kwakwani hospital,” said Allicock who revealed that the patient was transferred to the Linden Hospital by way of ambulance.

“Abandoned” patient: Winston Jeffrey

“He hasn’t been talking, so that makes it much harder,” said Allicock, even as she considered the possibly of the man being abandoned or “maybe there are family members out there looking for him.”
With little information to work with, the hospital has reached out to this publication to help publicize Jeffrey’s plight in hopes that relatives will come forward and remove him from the hospital, since his condition no longer warrants medical attention.
“He is in a stable condition…he was treated and was discharged, but he is [still] currently housing and receiving routine care at the Linden Hospital Complex,” Allicock revealed yesterday.
Removing Jeffrey from the hospital is particularly crucial to free-up much needed bed space at the facility, the Public Relations Officer said. As such, she noted that the hospital is appealing to the relatives of Jeffrey to make urgent contact with the Supervisor’s office of the hospital via telephone number 444-3005.