It was suggested that he could be a brilliant concert pianist, an autistic savant or an asylum seeker. But the "Piano Man," who was silent for more than four months after being found dripping wet in a dinner suit on the Isle of Sheppey, has been dismissed as a hoaxer following his release from hospital.
The tall, blond 20-year-old farmer's son from Bavaria was recovering with his family in Germany Monday as the British hospital where he was treated confirmed he had been identified and tersely announced there had been a "marked improvement" in his condition.
The man's name and state of mind remained unclear but it is understood that officials at West Kent NHS (the publicly funded National Health Service) trust are to discuss whether to pursue a claim for compensation against him after an unnamed member of staff at the hospital alleged that the man had duped senior doctors into believing he was mentally ill.
A spokesman for the trust said he could not confirm or deny reports that the patient understood English all along and suddenly confessed to a nurse that he had deployed characteristics picked up from working with mentally ill people to fool staff into believing he could not speak or remember who he was.
It was reported that the man told staff at the secure mental health unit at the Little Brook hospital in Dartford, southeast England that he decided not to speak when he was discovered shortly after attempting suicide on his arrival in Britain from Paris, where he worked as a waiter.
The German embassy in London was contacted on Friday by the hospital after the man's apparent confession, in which he reportedly also said he was gay and had two sisters, and a father who was a farmer in Germany. Provided with travel documents, he flew back to Germany on Saturday.
The NHS trust said: "The patient dubbed `Piano Man' is no longer in the care of West Kent NHS and social care trust. He has been discharged ... following a marked improvement in his condition. The rules regarding patient confidentiality mean that the trust is unable to make any further comment on this story."
Apparently highly agitated, the man did not speak when he was discovered by police, soaking wet and suffering from the cold, near a beach on the Isle of Sheppey in April.
He was admitted to hospital but there was nothing on him to identify him. All the labels had been torn out of his suit and identifying marks on his shoes erased.
A social worker reported that he reacted with fear when approached and the first theory that he was a traumatized or mentally ill musician emerged when he was given a pencil and paper and produced a detailed sketch of a grand piano.
Pictures of the man were broadcast around the world, including Germany, in an attempt to contact his family. The UK's National Missing Persons Helpline received 1,500 phone calls and 400 e-mails offering information and theories about his identity and medical condition.
While reports of his musical ability were mixed, an upright piano was placed in his room at the secure mental health unit where he was treated. It was said he played themes from Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake and wrote and performed his own compositions, but according to a member of staff at the hospital, he could barely play a note and often tapped one key continuously.
Despite similarities with the film Shine, in which Geoffrey Rush plays David Helfgott, a pianist who has suffered a breakdown, for months there was little suggestion that staff seriously suspected the young German may not have been genuinely ill.
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