A MYSTERIOUS dying patient has left doctors scrambling to try and identify the man before it is too late.
Baffled officials in California have been forced to launch an extraordinary appeal for help as they continue to look for anyone who may know the man.
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The seriously ill patient has been looked after at the Riverside Community Hospital since he arrived by himself on September 28.
A last chance press release by staff showed an image of the man connected to breathing tubes on a hospital bed.
The picture shows the slim man has a shaved head, short facial hair brown eyebrows and light blue eyes.
He is believed to be between 27 and 40 years old and is around 5ft 7in, according to the release.
Doctors also say he weighs just 106 pounds.
A statement alongside the image says: “Hospital Case Management and Social Worker teams have exhausted resources in attempting identification, including working with the Riverside Police Department.”
No further details have been released about the man including his current condition and why he was hooked up to a ventilator.
Anyone with information relating to the mystery patient has been asked to contact Social Services Supervisor Kanval Gill at 951-897-9438.
The issue of unidentifiable patients may be rare but several other hospitals have faced similar struggles in the past.
Back in 2019, a man stayed in a Manhattan hospital for six weeks but only remembered his first name.
Cops begged for help identifying the man who was known only as ‘John’.
He was admitted to the Bellevue Hospital in October with a broken leg and although it wasn’t clear what condition caused John to lose his memory, he did display several signs of amnesia.
In 2018, LA County-USC Medical Center also appealed for help uncovering the identity of a man who had spent five months at the California hospital.
Paramedics found the mystery bloke near 6th and Alavarado Streets in MacArthur Park as docs posted pictures online of the man.
Just a few hours later, family members quickly contacted the centre to tell them who the 40-year-old Hispanic man was.
Dr Chase Coffey, an associate medical director of inpatient services at LA County, says mystery person cases are actually fairly common.
Typically, those patients who go weeks or months without being named are often homeless, use a fake identity or are undocumented.
Or they could be trauma victims, Coffey added.
