Mystery of the California patient with no name: Hospital’s extraordinary appeal to find out who man is as he clings to life
Stunned officials have asked the public to help identify a critically ill patient who remains alive in a California hospital.
Staff at Riverside Community Hospital in the north suburb have been doing everything they can to name the man since he came through their door on September 28.
They have refused to say what is wrong with him or why he is on a ventilator, but have released a photo in the hope that someone can put a name to the face.
“Hospital case management and social worker teams have exhausted resources in identification efforts, including working with the Riverside Police Department,” managers said in a statement.
The mystery man is described as having a slim build, a shaved head and light blue eyes.
Staff at Riverside Community Hospital have run out of ideas after trying to determine his identity since he came to them on September 28.
The mystery man is said to be somewhere between 27 and 40 years old, he is 6 feet tall and weighs just 106 pounds.
It is not the first time that a hospital has made a public appeal to identify a patient.
LA County-USC Medical Center appealed for help in 2018 when a man without identification spent five months at the California facility after paramedics found him near 6th and Alavarado Streets in MacArthur Park.
Relatives of the Spanish man in his 40s contacted him hours after the hospital released a photo.
Dr. Chase Coffey, associate medical director of inpatient services in LA County, said such cases are common at the hospital, which is one of the largest in the country.
However, he added that it is rare for a patient to remain in hospital for five months without being identified.
He added that these patients are often homeless, carrying false identification or may be undocumented.
“They could be trauma victims,” he explained.
Belleview Hospital in New York City asked for help in December 2019 in an effort to reunite another mystery patient in time for Christmas.
The older man was admitted two months earlier with a broken leg and could only tell me that his name was “John” and that he was from Manhattan.
The mystery man from Riverside is described as having a slim build, shaved head, brown eyebrows and light blue eyes.
Anyone with information was asked to contact Social Services Supervisor Kanval Gill at 951-897-9438.