On the 4th ground of Santa Clara Valley Medical Heart in San Jose, within the medical-surgical unit, the rooms are buzzing with households gathered round hospital beds visiting their family members.
However not in Room 4K110.
A thriller man hit by a prepare greater than a month in the past is recovering right here, unable to speak who he’s or the place he comes from.
Officers on the hospital run by Santa Clara County took the weird step Thursday of releasing his picture to the general public in hopes that somebody will acknowledge him and reunite him along with his household. His eyes are barely open. A tube runs from his nostril. A jagged, two-inch scar drops down his brow. He’s about 5-foot-9 and appears to be in his 30s or 40s.
Does anyone know this man?
“It’s difficult when people are in the hospital and they don’t have that support system,” mentioned Stacie Fazzio, VMC’s nurse director accountable for the medical surgical models. When he’s prepared to depart the hospital, she mentioned, it’s essential that “people are there that can assist with his care.”
Federal regulation defending affected person privateness prohibits Fazzio from revealing extra about his situation, about his accidents, about whether or not he’s had surgical procedure. She wouldn’t say if he has amnesia or whether or not he can converse in any respect.
And when it got here to understanding why he ended up at 11:14 a.m. April 25 on the Caltrain tracks in Santa Clara with out identification, she declined to even speculate.
Nonetheless, registered nurse Victoria Tran and a staff of therapists and aides who’ve been tending to this John Doe can’t assist however surprise: “Is there anybody out there who’s looking for him?” Tran mentioned.
All of them really feel a particular empathy for this explicit affected person who has no guests, she mentioned. Each time a caregiver enters his room, they greet him with a heat hey, she mentioned, and ask whether or not he’s in ache, if he’s thirsty. Does he want something?
“We may not know him or his name, but we care for him like he’s like our own friend or our family,” Tran mentioned. “The speech therapists and the physical therapists all want to see him get better and see him be reunited with his friends and family.”
At any time when she will, Tran, 30, who’s spent her whole 6-year profession at Valley Med, lingers a bit longer in room 4K110.
“I just spend a little bit more time, just because there is nobody at the moment with him,” she mentioned.
She holds his hand and squeezes it, she mentioned, and touches his shoulder.
“I hope that he can feel it,” she mentioned, “and know that we’re here for him.”
San Mateo County Sheriff’s officers, who examine Caltrain accidents, mentioned Thursday they’ve made “extensive efforts” to establish the affected person, together with “facial comparison” know-how, and reviewed lacking particular person databases throughout the state, to no avail. They don’t imagine a criminal offense was dedicated, they mentioned.
However for Tran and the workers at Valley Med, they maintain wishing a member of the family will stroll in at some point and greet him by identify.
“Hopefully there is somebody out there, and they’re looking for him,” she mentioned. “That’s what’s in the back of my mind, that he has somebody out there.”
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