Father Grabs Ailing Son, Flees San Diego Hospital : Medicine: Boy was taken to emergency room for treatment after ingesting pills.

A distraught La Mesa man unhooked his 2-year-old son from heart monitors in a hospital emergency room Friday and fled with the ailing toddler--a life-threatening action that triggered a manhunt for the boy, who authorities say could die without medical attention.

Charles Hoch, 41, took his son, Travis, to the Sharp Memorial Hospital emergency room at 2:50 p.m. He told the staff there that his son had swallowed a potentially deadly amount of a prescription antihistamine called Atarax.

But, after 20 minutes, Hoch unhooked his son from the heart monitor, dressed him and took him away.

Authorities are unsure what triggered Hoch’s actions. A friend of Hoch’s, who asked to remain anonymous, said late Friday that “I have every reason to believe the kid is OK.”

The friend said he believed Hoch would surface with Travis today. “The kid is his life,” he said.

Shortly after Hoch arrived at the emergency room, nurse Jane Dreissen informed him that the boy needed to be treated with a liquid charcoal, which has a laxative effect, hospital spokeswoman Cathy Spearnak said.

Hoch, an unemployed college student, told Dreissen that she could continue monitoring his son but said he didn’t want him to be treated with the charcoal until he talked to the doctor, Spearnak said.

Hoch “became defensive and said: ‘Don’t fathers have any rights?’ ” Spearnak said.

Before the doctor arrived to speak with Hoch, the agitated man dressed his still-conscious son in his dark blue sweat suit and stormed out of the emergency room, with Dreissen and another nurse trailing him and telling him the boy needed to stay, Spearnak said.

When the nurses asked if he was going to take the boy against medical advice, “Hoch said, ‘You can assume I’m taking him against medical advice,’ ” San Diego Police Officer Anthony Linardi said.

A nurse yelled that she was going to report Hoch to Child Protective Services. Hoch shouted something back, but she could not hear what he said.

Hoch, 6-foot-3 1/2, 180 pounds with gray and black hair and a neatly trimmed beard, then drove off in a dark blue 1986 Ford Thunderbird, as one nurse took down his license plate number. Thirty minutes after fleeing the hospital, Hoch called his ex-wife, Nancy Hollar, at work and told her: “I’ve got Travis and they can look for me until the cows come home. I am on the lam with Travis, and I am not coming back,” according to Spearnak.

Hollar, a La Mesa resident who lives on Bockland Street, left her job at the Mira Mesa Toys-R-Us store and quickly went to the hospital, where police were waiting. Hollar was unavailable for comment but told police that her ex-husband had visitation privileges on Tuesdays and Fridays.

On those days, Hoch, who attends Grossmont College, was permitted to pick up his son from a La Mesa preschool program, Linardi said. On Friday, Hoch was supposed to pick up his son, spend the afternoon, then take him back to the school about 5:30 or 6 p.m., Linardi said. It was a longstanding arrangement that Hoch had always honored.

But, in the early afternoon, that plan went awry. Between 1 and 1:30 p.m., Travis found his father’s bottle of prescription antihistamines at his apartment in the 7400 block of Mohawk Street, Hoch told hospital officials.

The toddler apparently swallowed 10 to 15 capsules, each one containing 25 milligrams of the drug.

“For a child who got 15 of these--it’s definitely life-threatening,” said Steven Turchen, a specialist with the San Diego Poison Control Center. “With drugs like this, it’s not unusual to have severe symptoms within an hour or two.”

Atarax, usually prescribed for adults, has known side effects that include weakness, dizziness, drowsiness and muscle cramping.

But, because Travis was in the emergency room so briefly, doctors didn’t have time to ascertain that the drug he swallowed was indeed the one his father indicated, Spearnak said. In cases such as this, the doctor usually doesn’t order a test unless there is some doubt about the swallowed substance, she said.

Before Hoch took Travis to Sharp Memorial, he went to Sharp Rees-Stealy clinic, where his son’s doctor has an office.

Doctors there immediately called the Poison Control Center, which told the hospital to send the father and boy on to the nearest hospital emergency room, at Grossmont Hospital in La Mesa.

Instead, Hoch drove to Sharp Memorial Hospital in San Diego. It’s not clear why Hoch chose to drive there, but it might have been for insurance purposes, Linardi said.

At Sharp Memorial, Hoch told the nurse that his son had already vomited twice.

After Hoch took Travis from the hospital, police sent out an all-points bulletin and alerted border authorities about the need to find the child. Hoch has no relatives in the San Diego area.

Hoch’s friend said Hoch had moved from Los Angeles a little more than a year ago to be closer to his son. “He’s a regular guy,” the friend said.

“I don’t know why a father would do something like that unless there is something we don’t know,” San Diego Police Officer Frank Addington said.