Amid lockdown, an autorickshaw driver promptly returned costly cardiac medicine and a medical file left behind in the vehicle by a cardiac patient in Moodbidri by tracing the patient after contacting a doctor in Mangaluru on Monday.
The driver, Yousuf M.K., had dropped a 51-year-old cardiac patient from Moodbidri town to the patient’s village which was about 10 km away from Moodbidri at about 10.30 a.m. Later, when he returned to the town more passengers hired his autorickshaw.
After returning home in the afternoon, Mr. Yousuf noticed a file and a packet of medicine left behind in the rear seat. Unable to judge whose they could be, he found a medical prescription slip inside the file which had the mobile number of Padmanabha Kamath, interventional cardiologist and professor and head of the department of cardiology at the KMC Hospital in Mangaluru. Dr. Kamath had treated the patient last month. The driver telephoned Dr. Kamath and based on the hospital records the whereabouts of the patient were traced. Later, the driver drove back to the village and returned the medicine and the file to the patient.
“Unable to recall where he had lost them, the patient was under tension and felt very happy and thanked me,” Mr. Yousuf told The Hindu .
Dr. Kamath said that unable to come to Mangaluru due to the lockdown, the patient had visited a local doctor in Moodbidri with the file for consultation and to purchase medicine.
“The patient had painstakingly purchased the medicine. This case exemplifies the presence of Good Samaritans in all walks of life and we salute these real life heroes in uniform,” Dr. Kamath said. The lockdown restrictions posed a big challenge to all patients living in villages, especially heart patients, the doctor said.
Incidentally, Mr. Yousuf had, seven months ago, returned ₹1.05 lakh cash found in a purse left behind by a person from West Bengal in his autorickshaw.
