Ninge Gowda’s voracious appetite had him gobble up 40 ragi muddes and five kilos of rice everyday and still feel hungry. But no doctor told him that his sugar level hovered around a whopping 950, and he had paranoid schizophrenia. He suffered for seven years before Manipal Hospital doctors here discovered the cause for his suffering.
On Friday, as Gowda sat before mediapersons munching a plate of fruits and biscuits, his brother Krishna knew he was on the recovery path. Doctors at Manipal  had treated him for diabetes and with extensive psychiatric therapy. “Gowda’s symptoms are now under control,” certified doctors.
Doctors realised early that their patient suffered from hallucinations. “The classical traits of Diabetes -- Polyuria (excess urination), Polyphagia (excess eating) and Polydypsia (excess thirst) added to the patient’s Psychosis, resulting in a vicious circle for Gowda, who would constantly overeat,” explained a hospital official.
Manipal Hospital had learnt about Gowda from  media reports. His condition interested them, and the 45-year-old man was brought in to the hospital on February 7. Over the next two weeks, the hospital’s Corporate Social Responsibility took care of all his expenses.    
For Gowda, it was a virtual rebirth. But he still felt he was possessed by an evil spirit, the feeling that troubled him for seven years. As Manipal Hospital Internal Medicine department head, Dr K J Shetty observed, “He had delusions of being possessed by spirits that asked him to eat more.”
Labelled as a “Bakasura” back in his village in Pandavapura taluk of Mandya, Ninge Gowda’s appetite had shattered his already poor family. His family went from one hospital to another before landing up at Nimhans. “We didn’t get proper treatment anywhere. Eventually, we took him to a Beggar’s colony in Mysore. But there, he tried to eat food meant for 300 others and was forced out,” recalled his brother Krishna, content that Gowda is finally recovering.