Health problems drive two elderly people to suicide

CHENNAI: Two elderly people, including the mother of a policeman, committed suicide by self-immolation in separate incidents on Wednesday. Both decided to end their lives due to chronic health problems, police said. Sixty-two-year-old Saroja, whose son Rajasekaran is a head constable with the Vigilance and Anti-Corruption wing, was alone at home in the Otteri police quarters when she doused herself with kerosene and set herself ablaze at 10.45pm.

Saroja, an asthmatic, had been suffering from severe knee pain for long. She was upset that treatment for her ailments hadn’t yielded results. Rajasekaran told police that his mother was upset that her health hadn’t shown no signs of improving.

The same night, in Mylapore, 51-year-old Saravanan burnt himself in his house, reportedly because he was unable to bear stomach pain.

The employee of a PDS outlet, Saravanan was being treated at a private hospital in Mylapore and had stopped going to the shop for the past one year. Despite a prolonged period of treatment, there was no improvement in his condition. He was admitted to a private hospital for a couple days and after that he appeared to be upset, police said after talking to his family.

On Wednesday, when his family members were asleep, he set himself ablaze. Hearing his cries, they woke up and rushed him to hospital where he died. “His family could not afford to spend more on medicines and he had to bear the education expenses of his three children,” said an investigating officer.

Explaining suicidal tendencies among old people, geriatrician Dr V S Natarajan said such tendencies develop when they think they are lonely and are dependent on their children even for medical help.

In most cases, if they suffer from a chronic ailment, they lose hope and fail to take care of themselves. They could think that committing suicide is a way out.