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The family of a missing 87-year-old Riverside County woman who was spotted in San Diego called on authorities Monday to ramp up efforts to locate her.
Manuela Smith, who has dementia and has been missing for a little more than two weeks, was treated for back pain at Scripps Mercy Hospital in Hillcrest during the Labor Day Weekend and later released, her family said. Law enforcement had issued a Silver Alert about her disappearance in Hemet — where she lived — before she was released from the hospital.
During a news conference Monday, Smith’s granddaughter Kayla Farley and a group of advocates working on issued related to social justice and homelessness questioned why the hospital released Smith. They said the family was never contacted and that Smith shouldn’t have been discharged because she has dementia, was reported missing and had nowhere to go. Before she vanished, Smith had been living with her daughter, Farley said.
“We have a system that is failing our seniors,” said Amie Zamudio, director of Housing 4 the Homeless, a nonprofit that works to move people experiencing homelessness into hotel rooms. “This never should have happened to Ms. Manuela Smith.”
The Rev. Shane Harris, president and founder of the People’s Association of Justice Advocates, agreed. He said “there cannot be a disconnect” among hospitals and county and city government when hospital patients are released without anywhere to go.
“It can’t just be frivolous, that everybody says that’s not our responsibility,” he said.
“Additionally, Scripps does not discharge anyone who is showing signs of lacking capacity to understand and to make medical decisions on their own behalf,” the health care system said in a statement.
According to the Silver Alert, Smith was last seen about 10:30 a.m. on Aug. 25 in Hemet. The CHP issued the alert on behalf of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department on Sept. 2.
Zamudio came across Smith around 4 a.m. on Labor Day, after she got a call from a community member who asked her to check on a woman who was sitting at a bus stop on University Avenue in Hillcrest. The woman was Smith, who told Zamudio she was homeless, Zamudio said.
Zamudio checked her into a hotel room and went to check on a prescription Smith had gotten from a Scripps Mercy Hospital doctor, Zamudio said. When she returned to the hotel room, Smith had apparently gone for walk. But she never returned.
Smith left behind her belongings, including two packed suitcases, family mementos, her bible, her prescriptions and various documents. Zamudio said she called San Diego police and found out that Smith had been reported missing in Riverside County.
Smith is about 4 feet 10 inches tall and about 140 pounds. She has gray hair and brown eyes.
Family asks for help in case of missing woman who was treated at San Diego hospital
Manuela Smith, 87, was reported missing in Riverside County
www.sandiegouniontribune.com
