{"id":608439,"date":"2026-02-22T16:06:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-22T16:06:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/608439\/"},"modified":"2026-02-22T16:06:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-22T16:06:15","slug":"police-search-for-mental-health-patient-on-approved-leave-who-did-not-return-to-cumberland-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/608439\/","title":{"rendered":"Police search for mental health patient on approved leave who did not return to Cumberland Hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"

Police are searching for a psychiatric patient who did not return to a Sydney mental health hospital after his approved leave.<\/p>\n

On Sunday, an appeal was issued to help locate 25-year-old Madan Pandey who had not returned to Cumberland Hospital.<\/p>\n

“The patient was taking approved leave from the hospital and did not return at the planned time on February 21,” Western Sydney Local Health District said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“As per usual process, NSW Police were notified immediately.”<\/p>\n

\"Cumberland<\/p>\n

Police are appealing for help to locate Madan Pandey after he escaped from Cumberland Hospital. (ABC News: Timothy Ailwood)<\/p>\n

Mr Panday was last seen leaving the hospital about 9:30am on Saturday morning, wearing a black T-shirt with black shorts.<\/p>\n

“When he could not be located or contacted, officers attached to Parramatta Police Area Command were notified and commenced inquiries into his whereabouts,” police said in a statement.<\/p>\n

“Police and family have concerns for his welfare.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He has been described as being of Middle Eastern\/Mediterranean appearance, with short black hair and full beard and a moustache.<\/p>\n

Hospital under scrutiny<\/p>\n

The hospital is under a formal investigation after two patients who escaped from its care within 24 hours went on to allegedly cause three people\u2019s deaths.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Setefano Mooniai Leaaetoa<\/a>, 25, early last week allegedly stabbed three people on a busy shopping strip in Merrylands, killing one and critically injuring the others.<\/p>\n

Ten days earlier, he had been in mental health custody at Cumberland Hospital before escaping while being transferred to Westmead Hospital’s emergency department.<\/p>\n

High rate of escapes from Sydney mental health hospital<\/a><\/p>\n

Cumberland Hospital is under investigation after two patients who escaped from its care within 24 hours allegedly caused three people’s deaths.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a separate incident, Luke Peter Francis<\/a> is accused of causing a crash that killed a 60-year-old woman and her 84-year-old passenger at Camden on Saturday, February 14.<\/p>\n

Mr Francis had escaped from the same hospital one week before the incident.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is understood that the 31-year-old allegedly threatened a nurse before taking an access card and absconding from the hospital.<\/p>\n

According to data provided to the ABC by NSW Health, patients are three times more likely to abscond from Cumberland Hospital than from any other mental health unit in the state.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On average, one patient absconds from an acute mental health unit in NSW every 4,348 days.<\/p>\n

At Cumberland Hospital, it happens every 1,333 days.<\/p>\n

Anyone who has seen Mr Pandey or knows of his whereabouts is urged to contact Parramatta Police Station or Crime Stoppers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Police are searching for a psychiatric patient who did not return to a Sydney mental health hospital after…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":607837,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[261281,4740,1126,258725,50,258730,261280,13987],"class_list":{"0":"post-608439","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-abscond","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-crime-stoppers","11":"tag-cumberland-hospital","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-nsw-health","14":"tag-parramatta-police-station","15":"tag-patient"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116115143826313171","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=608439"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/608439\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=608439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=608439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=608439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}