Bewildered officials have asked the public to help identify a seriously ill patient currently surviving on life support in a California hospital.
Staff at Riverside Community Hospital in the north suburb have gone to great lengths to put a name to the man since he walked through their doors on September 28.
They have refused to say what’s wrong with him or why he’s on a ventilator, but have released a photo in the hope that someone can put a name to his face.
“Hospital case management teams and social workers have exhausted resources to attempt identification, including working with the Riverside Police Department,” administrators said in a statement.
The mystery man is described as having a thin build, a shaved head and light blue eyes.
The staff at Riverside Community Hospital has been out of ideas after trying to piece together its identity since it walked through its doors on Sept. 28.
The mystery man is believed to be between 27 and 40 years old, is 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighs just 106 pounds.
It is not the first time that a hospital has made a public appeal to identify a patient.
Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center asked for help in 2018 when an unidentified man spent five months at the California facility after paramedics found him near 6th and Alavarado streets in MacArthur Park.
Relatives of the Hispanic man in his 40s got in touch hours after the hospital posted a photo.
Dr. Chase Coffey, associate medical director of inpatient services in Los Angeles 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 the 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 victims of trauma,” he explained.
New York City’s Belleview Hospital asked for help in December 2019 in an attempt to reunite another mystery patient in time for Christmas.
The old man had been admitted two months earlier with a broken leg and could only tell them that his name was ‘John’ and that he was from Manhattan.
The Riverside mystery man is described as having a thin build, a shaved head, brown eyebrows and light blue eyes.
Anyone with information is asked to contact Social Services Supervisor Kanval Gill at 951-897-9438.
