Missing for 3 years, a radio station helped this woman to reunite with her family in Tamil Nadu

Visalakshi had developed some psychological issues when her husband was suffering from cancer. One day, she left home in Tamil Nadu to meet her relatives, never to return. She had landed up in West Bengal and was sheltered at the Barasat State General Hospital as an unidentified patient for the past 3 years.

It was difficult for the family members of 33-year old Visalakshi to cope with the fact that she was no more. 3-years ago when she had left home never to return, they had searched through hospitals, morgues and temples to look for her. Little did they know that she had landed up in the Barasat State General Hospital in West Bengal. 

Listed as an unidentified patient, the hospital authorities sheltered her on humanitarian grounds. But there was no way to communicate with her since she spoke only Tamil. This is where Ham Radio came into the picture. Known for reuniting close to 9 missing persons with their families in the past, the radio station was determined to track the whereabouts of Visalakshi's family too. 

Narrating the entire story was Subrata Mondol, superintendent of the Barasat hospital, who said, "Visalakshi was admitted to the hospital on March 19, 2015, when police picked her up as a vagabond. After psychiatric treatment, she improved three or four months ago." He further added, "But we could still not get her name and details because she spoke only Tamil. Then we looked up numbers of HAM radio operators from the Internet and called them. Through their help, her village was identified and she returned to her family, which gives us great pleasure and satisfaction.”

Meanwhile, narrating their side of the story to the New Indian Express, Ambarish Nag Biswas, secretary of the West Bengal Radio Club (Amateur Club) said, "We got a call from the hospital saying they have a patient, a missing person. The hospital said they could not understand the language. We went there and tried to help." The language barrier was soon broken when another HAM operator P Gopinath, a student at Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology in Shibpur, Bengal, was called in to interpret the language. Doctors also took help of translators to understand what she was saying. Once they could decipher where she was from, they contacted the Tamil Nadu HAM operators and got her to speak to them. Authorities and HAM operators started looking for her house from the given address, but could not trace her family.

HAM operators and doctors, along with state police traced her family members in a village in Tamil Nadu. They bought return tickets to Tamil Nadu for Visalakshi and her relative. 

Apparently, they had moved 12 kilometers away from their home and were residing in a village. Subir Dutta, president of the radio club said, "HAM operators traced that house and got the patient’s brother, Damodharan, to speak to her. Later, HAM operators in Chennai brought Damodharan a ticket to Kolkata. It was an emotional reunion at the hospital. Authorities of the hospital and we arranged for tickets home and they reached there on June 2.”

It is said that Visalakshi's husband was suffering from cancer when she started developing mental illness. She went missing after leaving home to meet relatives. Her husband died after some time. Her brother Damodaran meanwhile said, "We searched temples and hospitals in Tamil Nadu, Hyderabad and other places for months. By the grace of God and the help of these people, we have found her. I have no words to thank them."

HAM radio is a hobby and networks operators who use different kinds of radio equipment to communicate with one another for public services, self-training and recreation. Close to 3 million people around the world are involved in HAM radio operations. 

(Image courtesy: Twitter)