The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Student in coma for 42 days, no probe yet into suicide bid

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Feb 11, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Student in coma for 42 days, no probe yet into suicide bid

By Sandhya Soman

CHENNAI, FEB. 10 . His classmates may be honing their teaching skills. But Bhoopathi has been in a coma in the Kilpauk Medical College here for the past 42 days. The reason: attempted suicide hanging.

Officials are yet to inquire into why the 22-year-old tried to hang himself at the District Institute of Education and Training hostel at Sevvapet, 40 km from here, on December 25, 2004. The Sevvapet police say they have not registered any case.

Bhoopathi is in the intensive medical care unit and his parents, Ponnusami and Pappathi, try to ease their only son's congested breathing. Ponnusami, a farm labourer, points to the bruise across Bhoopathi's neck. Pappathi breaks down as she recalls how her son was happy to be home for Deepavali.

"He said he wanted a TC (transfer certificate). That was the first time he was unhappy about the college. I asked him to be calm but something was wrong," she says. The parents received a phone call from the institute on Christmas day about their son being in a critical condition after attempting suicide. After five days in a private hospital in the city's suburbs, he was referred to the KMC.

"I wanted to take him to Coimbatore, our home town, so we could give him better care. But they made me sign some papers and said he could be treated only in the KMC," says Ponnusami.

Bhoopathi was put on ventilator in the hospital. Doctors say he was brought in bad shape. His vital functions were normal but there was severe damage to the brain, probably due to asphyxia. "We tried to revive him with supportive measures but have not been able to raise the level of consciousness," a doctor said. "He was not mentally stable due to familial reasons. He was acting strangely right before he tried to commit suicide in his friend's room," says the principal in-charge, A.R. Kumarasuvamy.

He claimed that the parents gave their "consent" to transfer Bhoopathi to the KMC and even wrote to the local police and the institution authorities saying their son was mentally unstable.

No letter with police

But there is no such letter with the Sevvapet police, who said the authorities only informed them of the incident on the phone. No case has been registered yet.

G. Selva, State president, Students' Federation of India, wonders why the authorities did not officially inform the police. "Bhoopathi and his parents are socially and economically backward. He is the first person in his family to go for higher education. The authorities should have clearly told the father about his son's condition and lessen his misery."

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