2-Year-Old Boy, Taken by Father From Hospital, Returned to Ex-Wife

A 2-year-old La Mesa boy was returned unharmed to his mother Saturday morning, a day after his father fled a San Diego emergency room with the toddler in a disagreement over the proposed treatment for the child’s potentially fatal drug overdose.

After a night of rambling telephone conversations with reporters in San Diego and Los Angeles, 41-year-old Charles Hoch reunited his son, Travis, with ex-wife Nancy Hollar at her La Mesa home.

Police, who had launched a manhunt for father and son after Hoch fled the Sharp Memorial Hospital emergency room Friday afternoon, said they will not charge the unemployed student.

“Travis is fine, and that’s all that matters,” a relieved Hollar said.

Hoch had the child evaluated at UC San Diego Medical Center about 5 a.m., where he was released in good condition an hour later, police said. Hoch showed up at Hollar’s door and turned over the child about 8:30 a.m., she said.

Hoch fled the hospital about 20 minutes after arriving there with Travis, who, he told authorities, had accidentally taken an overdose of the prescription antihistamine Atarax. He objected to a nurse’s proposal to treat the toddler by feeding him charcoal, which would have had a powerful laxative effect.

Hoch made four telephone calls to a Times reporter between 12:30 a.m. and 4 a.m. Saturday, acknowledging that his son had taken the antihistamine, which a doctor had prescribed as skin medication for Hoch.

But Hoch said that he was deeply afraid that if he attempted to turn the child over on his own, police would beat him.