A well-dressed man pushed a woman in a wheelchair into Saint James Hospital, carrying a note describing their specific medical conditions and a request they not be separated.
Neither can speak, hear, read or write. And every day the man carefully attends to the woman's needs, helping her to chew her food and deftly measuring her medicine.Hospital officials see little choice other than to split them up if no one steps forward to reveal the couple's identities.
"It was the most heartbreaking thing in the world," hospital spokesman Joseph M. Orlando said Tuesday. "It is so painfully obvious that he takes good care of her."
Two days of police work has gone nowhere. The couple could have been abandoned by a family or an institution, and the man has made gestures indicating they were thrown out of somewhere.
Light-skinned, possibly Hispanic, the woman appears to be in her 60s and the man in his 40s.
The typed note they had with them said she was 68 or older, has seizures, hypertension and is incontinent. Precise dosages of her medicine were listed, including warnings of a previous wrist fracture, no-sodium diet and allergic reactions.
The note gave the man's age as 45 or older and said he, too, suffered seizures.
It also described him as the woman's primary caregiver who bathes her, feeds her, "massages her, caters to her every whim, lovingly . . . must never leave her side, will never leave her side, should never leave her side . . . doing so will prove detrimental to her well being! and health!"
Those responsible for leaving the couple at the hospital on Sunday appeared to make an effort to conceal their identities.
Part of the label on the woman's anti-seizure prescription was ripped off, as were markings on her wheelchair - such as the maker or vendor - which would help authorities trace it.
The couple were clean. The man wore khaki pants and carried $100 and no identification. They had two plastic bags that held prescriptions as well as grapes and raisins.