Lakshman's hospital bill more than Dh62,000

Dubai: The shy, confused Lakshman aka Neralla Lachaiah, interviewed by Gulf News last week was nowhere to be seen as news of his real identity brought out a completely different personality of his.

A highly talkative Lachaiah was seen interacting effortlessly with those around him, even asking this reporter to repeat the names of his children, which he had just mentioned.

"Your questions are making my head hurt," he said, at one point, as he thought hard on some questions. Many of his answers still were wrong, based on what we learned from his family, but that's expected, according to his doctors.

"He's all smiles today," said a nurse, adding that he just wants to get home now.

We feel extremely happy that he has found his family, one of the doctors said.

Of course his playfulness will be missed at the ward, she added.

When his family was contacted he immediately called them by their names and recognised them.

Asked if that is normal since his medical records show that his recent memory has been affected due to the injury he sustained to the frontal lobe of his brain, nurses said that he used to give random names of people and places where he worked. "But nothing added up. There were several missing links," said one.

"The details he gave were also very inconsistent earlier. Sometimes he would say something and then say something else completely different when asked again," said Pam Gauri, a Valley of Love volunteer.

Hospital bills

Lachaiah's hospital bills have snowballed to more than Dh62,000, excluding cost of his medicines, Aisha Al Kindi of the Case Management section at Rashid Hospital said.

"If there was no other way … if no one came forward to identify him through Gulf News, then we would probably have had to refer him to the police," she said.

But that of course would have been the last resort because of humanitarian considerations, she added.

"We are very happy for him and we are extremely thankful to Gulf News for their support."

"Lachaiah will be allowed to leave the hospital soon as formalities such as an outpass from the Indian Consulate are completed."

Regarding bill settlement, she said that in such cases whenever a patients' employer is traced out they will be held responsible, but if the patient is staying in the country illegally, then the bills are referred to the legal department, to be taken up with immigration and police.