Alzheimer’s Patient Missing for 4 Days Found in Griffith Park

A Granada Hills-based volunteer search and rescue team helped find a missing 77-year-old Alzheimer’s patient in Griffith Park on Sunday.

Mortimer Welkowitz, who had disappeared from his Los Feliz home four days earlier, was found conscious but disoriented, severely dehydrated and with a broken leg, said Brian Humphrey, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department. He was hospitalized in serious but stable condition.

Members of the California Emergency Mobile Patrol--or CEMP--worked with Los Angeles Police Department mounted patrols and park rangers in a remote area of Griffith Park to locate Welkowitz, Humphrey said.

“He was actually in relatively good condition considering what he has been through,” said Antonio Arizo, president of the Granada Hills group.

Welkowitz had been reported missing from his home a few miles from the park, authorities said.

Because of the park’s rough terrain, police brought in the search and rescue team Saturday night, but it was too late for the group to begin, Arizo said. They set up a command post at the park Sunday at 8 a.m.

Crews scouring the area found the man three hours later, about a quarter-mile east of the Greek Theater.

Sunday’s operation typifies the California Emergency Mobile Patrol’s volunteer work.

The organization is a nonprofit group associated with the LAPD’s Devonshire Division, Arizo said.

Its approximately 50 members have varying professional backgrounds, but they share a common interest in search and rescue, Arizo said. Their basic training includes first aid and CPR. Some are professional paramedics and emergency medical technicians.

In addition to the roughly two dozen search and rescue operations the group responds to each year, Arizo said it also holds educational programs such as first aid seminars and earthquake preparation drills.