UK Hospital's Piano Man Mystery

Patient Refuses To Talk, But Plays Up A Storm

(AP)  Hospital authorities caring for a patient who refuses to talk but willingly plays the piano for hours said Tuesday they were investigating a number of new leads about his identity.

The tall, blond-haired man, who is in his 20s or early 30s, has not said a word since he was found, distressed and dressed in a dripping wet suit, on the Isle of Sheppey in Kent county, southeast England, on April 7.

When staff at the Medway Maritime Hospital in Gillingham gave him writing materials, he drew detailed pictures of a grand piano and, when shown the piano in the hospital chapel, sat down and played for two hours, causing staff to nickname him "Piano Man."

Baffled staff said their problems have been compounded by the fact that all the labels were cut off the man's clothes.

"That is a real twist — and it's enough of a mystery without that," said Adrian Lowther, spokesman for the West Kent National Health Service Trust, which is caring for the man at a psychiatric unit in Dartford in north Kent.

"Apart from mentally, the man is healthy, and he is washing himself. But he does not communicate at all, so he cannot receive counseling."

Lowther said a tabloid newspaper has provided the man with a piano, and playing calms him down noticeably.

Lowther said the National Missing Persons Helpline has received 320 calls and 70 e-mails after releasing a picture of the man and one of his piano drawings Monday. The health trust also has received numerous telephone calls.

"We are wading through those with the police — we just hope that in among the calls may be someone who knows him," Lowther said. "But it will take some time."