In Japan hospital for eight months, Gujarat man brought back home

A man from Gujarat, who was in a Japanese hospital for TB and stroke treatment for eight months, was brought to Ahmedabad via Delhi in an air ambulance after his family raised over Rs 40 lakh from donors online to facilitate his journey back home, his family members said on Tuesday.

Jayesh Patel (33), a resident of Bhesana in Mehsana district, was in Japan’s Ota city on a work permit when he contracted tuberculosis (TB) in October last year and later suffered a stroke (caused due to poor blood flow to the brain), his friends and family members said. He was admitted to a hospital in Shibukawa for the past eight months, they said.

Jayesh Patel was residing in Japan alone as his wife, who had gone with him to work there, returned home for the birth of their child, they said.

When his father visited his hospitalisedson, all he wanted was to bring him back to India for treatment but could not afford the cost for the same, Jayesh Patel’s friend Mukund Patel said.

“His family and local friends made an appeal on social media to raise Rs 1.25 crore required to bring him back by an air ambulance and get him treated here. They ran campaigns on various social media platforms, created a page ‘I support Jayesh Patel’ on Facebook, and received overwhelming response from the public,” Mukund said.

A team of doctors from India was required to go there to accompany him in the ambulance. A team of doctors from Ahmedabad went to Japan and under their observation Jayesh Patel was brought to Delhi by an Air India ambulance on Monday.

“From there, he was flown to Ahmedabad where he was admitted in a private hospital for treatment,” said Mukund.

Mukund said Jayesh’s family was overwhelmed by the support they received from common citizens, who donated generously. Jayesh’s younger brother Hardik Patel said they managed to raise Rs 41 lakh. “My brother and sister-in-law went to Japan in 2018 on work permit. While my sister-in-law returned, my brother was planning to come home in December 2020. On October 5, he was diagnosed with TB and admitted to a hospital. On January 6 this year, he suffered a brain stroke and his condition deteriorated,” said Hardik.

“We felt he was not getting proper treatment there so we wrote to the Indian embassy in Japan and also to the Prime Minister’s Office…,” Hardik said.