Ill Woman Roamed LAX for 5 Days
A 70-year-old Panorama City woman in poor health apparently wandered around Los Angeles International Airport for five days after missing a plane and becoming disoriented, authorities said Monday.
Irene Rodriguez was treated at Tarzana Regional Medical Center after going without food or daily medicine for diabetes and heart problems during most of the ordeal, which began Wednesday, officials said. Her condition was listed as “alert and coherent but agitated,” a hospital spokeswoman said.
Hospital and airport officials along with police here and in Lincoln, Neb., which was Rodriguez’s intended destination, were still attempting Monday to piece together how the woman became lost and why it took several days for her to receive help.
Rodriguez took a shuttle bus from Van Nuys to Los Angeles International on Wednesday, but for unknown reasons did not board the flight for which her son, Robin Breadwell, 39, and her daughter, Emily Breadwell, 47, had prepaid a ticket, authorities said.
On Saturday morning, Rodriguez went to a Travelers Aid Society booth at the airport and asked for help, authorities said.
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