Man Who Left Hospital Found Dead in Bushes

A mentally disabled 52-year-old man who had wandered away from a county hospital’s emergency room nine days earlier was found dead in the bushes near the San Diego Freeway in Carson, officials said.

Jose Daniel Rosales apparently “had the mind of a 2-year-old,” said Lt. Nils Linder of the Los Angeles County coroner’s office, adding that Rosales was unable to fend for himself or get help.

Rosales had been dead for at least two days when he was found Saturday, Linder said. Investigators found no evidence of trauma or foul play, and the cause of death is unknown, pending an autopsy.

Rosales, who suffered brain damage in a hit-and-run accident in 1993, had been taken to Glendale Adventist Medical Center on Aug. 30 suffering from severe dehydration. Paramedics had picked him up on the street. Because Rosales had no insurance, he was stabilized for several hours, then transferred to Los Angeles County Harbor/UCLA Medical Center in Torrance. He waited for treatment for four hours in the emergency room, until 5 a.m. on Aug. 31--when he walked out.

Although family members could not be reached for comment, Linder said an attorney claiming to represent the family had contacted the coroner’s office. A Harbor/UCLA Medical Center official declined to comment.

Rosales’ body was found by California Department of Transportation workers at the Avalon Boulevard on-ramp to the southbound San Diego Freeway, Sheriff’s Deputy Matthew Rodriguez said.

Rodriguez said that after Rosales left the emergency room, relatives he lived with reported him missing. Since then, the Homicide Division’s missing person detail had urgently worked the case, mindful that Rosales had severe brain damage, Rodriguez said.

The man could “only comprehend questions in Spanish, and answer yes and no,” Rodriguez said. He also responded to his nickname “Chepe.” The family had broadcast appeals on news programs and handed out flyers, Rodriguez said.

Glendale Adventist Medical Center spokeswoman Alicia Gonzalez said that when Rosales arrived there at 9:47 p.m. on Aug. 30, he was so dehydrated that he needed hospitalization. He also was so dirty that paramedics assumed that he was homeless, Gonzalez said. As is the custom with indigent patients, she said, Rosales was treated and stabilized. Almost two hours after his arrival, two relatives who were on hand were notified that he would be transferred to another hospital.

When Rosales was transferred at 1 a.m., his relatives could not be found but were informed by phone an hour later of his transfer to Harbor/UCLA. “It was a routine transfer” of an indigent patient, Gonzalez said.