Turkish man dies after spending 47 years in hospital

ISTANBUL, Turkey—A Turkish man died at 70 after spending nearly half a century in a hospital in Turkey “because he had nowhere else to go,” media reported Tuesday.

Abdullah Kozan, who had asthma and diabetes, was first admitted to a state hospital in western Bursa province with a severe headache back in 1968 when he was doing his military service.

He died on Friday in his room, where he had spent the past 47 years, Dogan news agency said.

Kozan had been allowed to stay because “he had no place to go and he got on very well with hospital staff,” workers told Dogan.

The hospital administration registered Kozan as a new patient each time he was discharged at the end of a treatment.

“He was like a member of our hospital. We protected him. But we couldn’t save him when he got worse” during the recent Eid al-Adha Muslim holiday, one staff member said.

An undated picture published by Dogan showed Kozan, still alive, wearing beige and burgundy pyjamas as he sat on his hospital bed, with a doctor standing beside him.