Escaped Mental Patient Rescued Off High-Voltage Tower

A mental patient who escaped from Camarillo State Hospital climbed a 150-foot electrical tower Wednesday, leading to the second high-wire rescue this week from the same series of power lines.

The patient, who was not identified, was brought down safely just two days after a Newbury Park boy burned himself critically on another Edison tower less than three miles away.

The 35-year-old man bolted from his therapist about 9:45 a.m. while walking the grounds of Camarillo State, according to hospital officials.

He was on a temporary psychiatric commitment from Los Angeles County.

Search crews were dispatched within minutes, and by 10 a.m. a hospital volunteer coordinator saw the patient climbing up the steel tower.

It was another 2 1/2 hours before the rescue was completed.

“He was half-way up when I spotted him,” said Jerry Scheurn, a volunteer coordinator and part-time firefighter at Camarillo State. “He was whistling and waving his arms.”

Authorities cordoned off the area and called in Ventura County Fire Department rescue crews.

The patient was upset and vowed to kill himself, officials said.

“He said, ‘Stay away,’ ” county Fire Department spokesman Joe Luna said. “He threatened to jump.”

Emergency officials kept rescuers away while Southern California Edison crews shut off the 220,000-volt power line.

The patient was given a cellular telephone so hospital workers could talk to him, and also was passed some cigarettes.

After about an hour, the man agreed to come down, and rescue crews from the hospital and Ventura County brought him down slowly in a harness.

The man was fatigued, dehydrated and semi-conscious when he reached the ground.

He was transported by ambulance to St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital before being returned to Camarillo State.

The patient had been scheduled for a three-day stay at the mental health facility, but his term could be extended to 14 days or longer if hospital workers consider him a danger to himself or others.

A hospital spokeswoman said the patient’s ground privileges would probably be revoked.

The escape comes as state and local officials are debating whether to keep the aging hospital open by converting it to a facility that treats mentally ill criminals.

Unauthorized absences are relatively common at Camarillo State, which is currently a low-security campus.

Three to five patients a month walk away from the mostly unfenced grounds, hospital officials said last September after five teenagers left the institution and headed for the beach.

* FIGHTING TO SURVIVE

Teenager nearly electrocuted on tower undergoes laser surgery. B4