
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, March 27, 1993                   TAG: 9303270253
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

PATIENT MISSING FROM SALEM VA; SEARCH CALLED OFF

A patient disappeared from the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salem on Friday afternoon, but VA officials called off a search a few hours later after concluding he was making his way to relatives in West Virginia.

The patient was discovered missing around 2:45 p.m. and the Salem Police Department was notified, said Night Administrator Dan Moffett. After searching the facility's grounds and the surrounding community, the search was called off around 5:30 p.m.

Officials spoke with the man's aunt in West Virginia, and decided he probably was heading there, as he has before, said Director John Presley. The aunt had not heard from the patient, and officials will stay in touch with her to see if he arrives safely.

Officials declined to release the patient's name or information about him.

Presley said there have been more than 40 cases of patients leaving the grounds during his tenure in the past nine months. "There's not much we can do about it."

The bodies of four VA patients were found on the hospital's grounds last year. The most recent case occurred in December when a patient wandered off during a night of record cold temperatures and died of exposure.

by CNB