Dubai: A penniless and jobless Indian visitor to the UAE is in desperate need of financial help to settle an outstanding hospital bill of Dh112,000.
Sutapa Patra, 27, hailing from West Bengal has piled up a massive hospital bill after undergoing treatment for a number of conditions including colitis, pancreatitis and severe sepsis among other ailments listed in her medical report.
The penniless woman, who is also severely diabetic, had low blood sugar due to stress. She also complained of severe stomach ache when her roommates at an accommodation where she was staying in Karama admitted her to a private hospital. Since she was pre-diabetic at the time of hospitalisation, her condition became more complicated and surgery had to be performed immediately.
According to Patra, a week after being hospitalised, she was finally discharged on May 7. In this short span of time, she has run up this massive bill.
“I have left my passport,” she said. “Some Good Samaritans who are looking after me have given a cheque to the hospital as a guarantee so that I could be discharged.”
The hospital bill still needs to be settled and the amount stands at Dh112,000.
Speaking to Gulf News, Patra said she came to the UAE in the middle of November 2019 on a three-month visit visa. She was promised a job of a chef in a hotel by a recruitment agent in India. Unfortunately, she was duped by the agent and when she landed in UAE, she was told there was no hotel job for her. Instead, she was made to work as a domestic help for a family. She claimed she was not paid a salary and given only one meal a day.
“I had left home as the financial condition was not very strong. I came here to earn money and save for my family. When I realised that I was not getting what I had been promised, I left the job.”
Patra was lucky to find some good families in Dubai who are now taking care of her. “The UAE is a beautiful country, a melting pot. I am being looked after by some great people from Bangladesh, Nepal and India. That is how united we expats are. It is amazing. They are my new family.”
One of the families helping Patra tried to find her a job in the UAE. “Unfortunately, due to the pandemic, my application for a work permit was cancelled. Added to that, my visit visa also expired in the middle of February. I am in a fix now. I just want my bill to be settled and I want to return home to India,” she told Gulf News.
Bangladeshi expatriate Sahadat Hussein, one of the Good Samaritans looking after Patra, said: “I feel terrible for the sad state of this young girl. Right now, we are trying to collect money to settle the hospital bill as her passport is still with the hospital. We hope her appeal for help is heard by the large-hearted UAE expat community,” he added.
