PANAJI
P eter Rodrigues, a senior citizen, was walking along a road in Miramar when he had a tragic fall which left him with a broken leg and severe injuries to his spine.
“I had a bad fall,” he says, after which, he adds, he knows nothing.
“Until one day I found myself in a wheelchair, unable to walk, unable to even move on my own.”
For two months, Peter was then under the care of doctors and nurses at the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH).
There, doctors operated on his back and did their best to treat his injuries but, while his body was physically healing, he was emotionally traumatised by another wound — abandonment.
With no family coming forward and not a soul asking about him, Peter became just another name lost in the system.
And day after day he remained alone, his world reduced to the sterile walls of the hospital wards and the occasional footsteps of nurses either approaching to treat him or passing by.
Thus, six months passed, all in the wards of the GMCH and the North Goa District Hospital for Peter Rodrigues, once a proud resident of Miramar but now with no family to go to.
Finally, last week, Peter found a ‘home’ at one of several shelters managed by Street Providence, the Sangolda-based organisation which opens its doors to the forgotten and abandoned.
According to Donald Fernandes of Street Providence, they visited the district hospital at Mapusa in late April to accept another homeless man from there when officials brought to their notice the case of Peter.
“We committed to accept Peter but requested the hospital to complete all the required paperwork, which the authorities did, but due to the heavy rains since 19 May and the scare of Covid, we delayed,” Fernandes said.
Last Thursday, the Street Providence team went to the NGDH at Mapusa and accepted Peter into one of their homes.
“He is weak, stressed and disappointed after living in a hospital for six months. He will be administered physiotherapy at our unit along with nutrition and bonding with fellow residents. I am sure in about three months he will be fit and fine to stand on his own feet and live a normal life,” Fernandes said.
Street Providence has around 30 bed-ridden, wheelchair-bound men and women among the 180-odd residents under their care.
