ICU shift at a hospital 100 miles away helps doctor miraculously reunite with her lost diamond ring

Losing your valuables can never be a fun experience, especially when you lose something as expensive as a diamond ring, things get even more stressful. For Radhika Ramasamy, a consultant anesthetist at the West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust in Bury St. Edmunds, it was a chaotic day after she misplaced her diamond ring. According to NHS West Suffolk, Ramasamy's diamond ring ended up traveling about 100 miles away from Suffolk to the Royal Free Hospital only to end up in the pocket of a set of scrubs.

The interesting turn of events pulled another anesthetist registrar into the picture. Suraj Shah, who was working at the Royal Free Hospital, ended up finding the missing ring in his fresh green scrubs before he was about to start his ICU shift on December 19, 2023. "As I put the scrubs on something clattered to the floor and a colleague spotted the ring and alerted me. At first, I thought maybe one of the nurses here had lost the ring and I put the word out through the nurse in charge. I checked with the doctors as well but nothing so I contacted our facilities team," Shah told the outlet.

"I knew how downhearted my wife would be if she'd lost a ring that had sentimental value to her, so that was in the back of my mind. As healthcare workers, we often take off rings for procedures, so it's an easy mistake to make," he added. Thankfully, the RFH staff managed to contact the laundry they use to get their clean scrubs from and they were able to inform the RFH that someone from Suffolk indeed had reported a missing ring.

Ramasamy had placed the ring in her scrubs' pocket before delivering a spinal anesthetic to a patient and then forgot to wear her ring before discarding her scrubs. "I meant to put the ring back on afterward but ended up doing another procedure and forgot about it. It wasn't until the evening of the next day that I realized it was missing and then it was the weekend, so I didn't report it to my facilities team till Monday. To be honest, I never expected to get it back as I thought it would be crushed in the machinery at the laundry," Ramasamy revealed.

But luck was on her side as the scrubs still held her precious diamond ring even after going through the laundry machines and she is thankful for RFH and Shah, who made efforts to return her valuable. "I'm so happy to have it returned," she added. "It just shows how honest people are and I want to say a huge thank you to all the people involved – my end at the West Suffolk Hospital and at the Royal Free Hospital - in reuniting me with a ring that has real sentimental value to me as it was a birthday present from my husband a few years ago. I know it's been an incredible team effort and I am so appreciative of how so many people have gone the extra mile to track me down and return it to me."

"It's nice to feel part of a bit of a little miracle. I'm delighted the ring has been reunited with Radhika," Shah said. Well, the cases of people misplacing their valuables and wedding bands are nothing new. A while ago, a California resident let the Public Works Department know that his fiancée's engagement ring was accidentally flushed down the toilet by his soon-to-be stepson. 

The man and the city authorities tried their best to find the ring, with no luck. Workers even tried flushing the man's entire sewer system several times to find the ring. Even though they met with no success, the workers hoped they might find the ring someday. They were right and that day came a year later. The crew spotted the ring during sewer maintenance in 2023. After verifying that it was the same ring that had gone missing a year ago, the ring was sterilized and returned to the resident the next day.