HOUSTON – A man says for nearly week he’s been distraught trying to find his mother, Bertha, who suffers from Alzheimer's.
"I'm past worried. I'm terrified," said Kennard Joseph, the missing woman's son.
Joseph said he admitted his 66-year-old mother to West Houston Medical Center on Aug. 31 for dementia and Alzheimer's, but when he went to visit her on Wednesday, he says a security guard told him his mother had been discharged.
The hospital staff said that she had left the emergency room with an unknown woman on Sept. 5th. Joseph said he filed a missing person report with the Houston Police Department on Wednesday.
He said he’s been in contact with the hospital to try to get surveillance video, but he's worried about her safety.
"It's a crazy violent world and people get hurt, but she doesn't know what's going on really because she has Alzheimer's. She can't remember things," Joseph said.
The hospital representatives said they are working to gather more information.
The hospital released the following statement:
"We are required to maintain patient privacy but after the initial investigation. We have determined appropriate care was provided and our interim chief nursing officer is contacting the patients family to provide information that was provided at the time the patient was transferred."