He had buzz cuts and brown eyes, a stocky whiskers and a wrestler build.
He didn’t have a wallet or phone. He could not state his name. He arrived at the Los Angeles Zenels Medical Center on a cloudy winter day, as thousands of people do each year.
Approximately 130,000 people are brought to the LA General’s emergency room each year. Many are unconscious, incompetent, or feel too bad to tell staff who they are.
Almost all of these Jane and John have been identified within 48 hours of entry. However, each year, dozens of social workers decided to make efforts to figure out who they were.
I’m too sick to be discharged, but I’m staying in LA’s busiest trauma hospital for a few weeks due to lack of identification that needs to be transferred to a more appropriate facility. Sometimes it’s a few months. Sometimes for years.
That’s a result no one wants. And the hospital staff did what they would do as all the other possibilities were exhausted.
Social workers bring together small information they can legally share, and it’s his height and weight, estimated age, the date of entry, where he was found. They stood on his hospital bed and took a photo.
Then they asked 10 million people in Los Angeles County: Does anyone know who this is?
This unclear patient arrived at LA General on February 6th after being found unconscious in East Hollywood.
(Los Angeles General Medical Center)
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Just before 8am on February 16th, paramedics responded to a medical emergency at 1037 N. Vermont Avenue.
The man was stretching the sidewalk lined with chain link fences and sandbags, heading towards the entrance to a Vermont/Santa Monica subway stop near a public toilet. The pink scrape marks bloomed above and below his right eye.
Emergency workers estimated he was about 30 years old. Hospital staff estimated 35 to 40.
He had no property that might provide clues. Phones, wallets, tickets and receipts are not crumpled in your pocket.
He could not state his name or answer questions. The hospital recognized him by a name that the English-speaking world has used for centuries.
The majority of patients who were recognized as John leaving as himself. Unconscious awakening. Drunk and calm. Desperate relatives either call the hospital to find their missing loved one, or police arrive in search of suspects.
None of these things happened for men in North Vermont. When he finally opened his eyes, his language was minimal. Some obscure words – perhaps English, perhaps Spanish – and nothing sounded like a name.
The social worker wrote down everything he knew for sure about the patient: his height (4 feet, 10 inches), weight (181 pounds), and eye color (dark brown).
They then began chasing trails that normally lead to identification.
The ambulance crew were not aware of him, and the runsheet (used by documentary paramedics to record the patient’s condition and care) did not have any revelation details.
They checked Google Maps. Is there a nearby shelter where managers can call to ask about missing residents? no. Was there an apartment where residents might recognize his photos? there is nothing.
Second photo of General LA, looking for the name or close relative of this unidentified patient found in East Hollywood.
(Los Angeles General Medical Center)
They clicked on the county database. His details were not consistent with previously recognized hospital patients or anyone in the mental health system. The missing person’s report does not match his explanation. The social worker could not find mentions of people like him in social media posts.
Anonymous patients are a management issue. It is also a safety concern. Dr. Chasecophy, who oversees the hospital’s social work team, says if patients are unable to state their name, they probably can’t say whether they have a life-threatening allergy or are taking medication.
“We do our darndest to provide safe and effective quality care in these scenarios, but we encounter limitations there,” he said.
Federal law requires hospitals to enthusiastically protect patients’ privacy, and LA General is no exception. But given that almost every hospital deals with unnamed patients, California carries exceptions for unidentified people who are unable to make their own medical decisions. In such cases, the hospital can publish information that allows the patient to find a close relative.
On March 3rd, almost two weeks after the man arrived, a press release was published on the county website and appeared in reporters’ inboxes throughout the region.
“Los Angeles General Medical Center, a public hospital run by the LA County Department of Health Services, is seeking the media and public help to identify patients,” Flier said. In the photo, the man seen from his hospital bed was stuck somewhere past the camera, looking as lost as he could.
North Vermont’s Buzz Cutman was not the only DOE in hospital care.
On the same morning of March 3, the county asked to identify a thin, wisp-like older man with whiskers and swollen black eyes found at Edison Trail Park in Monterey Park.
Three days later, it sent out a breaking news for the gray haired Jane Doe, picked up near Lake Echo Park. In her photos, she was unconsciously intubated. A bruise formed on her forehead, and wires curled around her.
General LA is seeking identification for a female patient who arrived in late May.
(Los Angeles General Medical Center)
By the end of the month, LA Generals will ask the public to identify people whose cognitive or medical conditions are no longer able to speak on their own, as well as four men and women found alone on the streets throughout the county.
All of the hospitals are located in LA County. That doesn’t mean they live here.
The LA General is two miles from Union Station, with buses and trains that keep people traveling from all over North America. A few years ago, Coffey and social work supervisor Jose Hernandez were trying to place older couples in Nevada who suffer from cognitive decline.
Fingerprinting is rarely an option. The federal fingerprint database is accessible only to dying patients or those subject to police investigations, hospital staff said.
Even if these criteria are met, the database will only acquire a name if the person’s fingerprint is already in the system. And yet, it’s not always enough.
Late last year, law enforcement carried out prints of an unidentified female patient involved in a police case. The system returned the name – claiming that she was not the person the patient had firmly insisted.
“Now, is she confused? Do we have a wrong fingerprint and name match? Are there any discrepancies? Is there anyone using a different identity?” Coffey said. “What will we do now?”
In such a rope end scenario, the hospital is open to the public.
The press release is carefully expressed. Hospitals can disclose enough information to make patients aware of, but no more. Federal law prohibits mention of a patient’s mental health, substance use, developmental disorders or HIV status.
The hospital is trying to find a close relative for a 26-year-old man who was admitted in March.
(Los Angeles General Medical Center)
The release appears on the county’s website and social media channels. Local outlets often publish them further.
“The best results we get, we send [the notice] It will hit within a few days. We start getting calls from the community saying, “Oh, I know who this patient is,” Hernandez said.
Approximately 50% of releases lead to such positive results. For the other half of the patients, they get a little smaller each day so that their names don’t ring.
“If we don’t know who you are in a month, that’s unlikely we’ll get it,” said Dr. Brad Spelberg, the hospital’s chief medical officer.
On April 9, about two months after Buzz Cutman arrived at LA General, the hospital sent out a second release about him. His scuffs were healed. His dark hair was long. His stubble grew into a faint whisker.
“Patients sometimes say he lives on 41st Street and Walton Avenue,” the release said. “Speaks mostly Spanish,” but he had no name yet.
A person in this situation could be stuck with General LA for the rest of his life.
One man, who was attacked by a car on Santa Monica Boulevard in January 2017, lived with a traumatic brain injury for nearly two years before dying unidentified in a hospital. As of late 2024, some had been there for over a year.
1. The woman is believed to be 55 years old and was found outside the Los Angeles General Medical Center. 2. The patient, discovered in Pasadena, has a small cross tattoo on his left forearm and a small star tattoo on his left humerus. 3. The patient is believed to be about 50 years old and was found on East Fifth Avenue in downtown Los Angeles. (Los Angeles General Medical Center)
If the patient does not have an identity, La General cannot understand who will guarantee them. And in the US healthcare system, not guaranteeing payments is almost worse than having no name.
Skilled nursing facilities, group homes and rehabilitation centers don’t take anyone with no one to pay, Spellberg said. County guardians act as guardians for residents of vulnerable disabled people, but are unable to accept unnamed cases.
Unless the patient recovers enough to check out themselves, they are stuck in a losing scenario. They cannot be discharged from LA General, where 600 beds are desperately needed for the county’s most serious illnesses and injuries, but they cannot be redirected to facilities that provide the necessary care.
“We are the busiest trauma center in the United States in West Texas,” Spellberg said. “If our beds are being picked up by someone who doesn’t really need us [trauma] The hospital cannot leave…it’s a bed that is not available to other patients who need it. ”
LA General serves as a staff member who handles the crisis rather than long-term care for people with dementia or traumatic brain damage.
Bedbound patients may experience pressure pain if not turned frequently enough. Mobile patients can wander through hospital corridors or collapse and hurt themselves.
“You’re trapping patients in the wrong care environment,” Spelberg said. “They literally took hostages in hospitals, for months.”
The man, found at Edison Trail Park, eventually left the hospital. The same was true of the woman with grey hair whose name was finally confirmed.
The North Vermont man is still in General LA. His identity is as mysterious as the day he arrived four months ago.
doe continues to come: the 7th and the old man found near Flower Street. A young man found near a railway track. Man with burns and grey beard. Another unconscious and seriously hurt.
Everything is sick or injured, everything is separated from their names, and all their futures ride on a single question: Does anyone know who this is?
If you have any information about the individual depicted here, contact the LA General’s Social Work department Monday through Friday from 8am to 5pm (323) 409-5253. Outside of those times, call the School of Emergency Medicine’s Social Work Division (323) 409-6883.
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