Alzheimer’s Patient Found 7 Months Later

After seven months of searching, Rosemary Banagas was finally ready to give her father up for dead. Not a trace had been found of Gregory Hernandez, who suffers from Alzheimer’s disease, since the August day last year when he disappeared from his son’s Lakewood home.

Then a miracle of sorts occurred last week.

A family friend spotted Hernandez walking down Soto Street in East Los Angeles. “Our friend said, ‘Your family has been looking for you,’ ” Banagas said. “And my father replied, ‘They have?’ He didn’t even realize he was lost.”

Hernandez, 70, was reunited with his joyous family soon afterward. Banagas said her father was dirty and confused, but otherwise unchanged from the day he simply vanished from view. He even had his two identification cards and his children’s telephone numbers in his pockets.

Police say that Hernandez displayed surprising survival skills for a man given to severe memory lapses and confusion. Living the life of a street person on some of the city’s meanest streets, he managed to keep himself clothed and fed by selling discarded bottles and cans.

Nights were spent in abandoned garages or under a bridge. Sgt. J. D. Smith, who handled the missing persons case for the county sheriff’s office, said details of Hernandez’s activities came from a man he he met on the street.

Hernandez, who grew up in the East Los Angeles area, was apparently drawn back there by his memories, Smith said. “He was just hanging around his old neighborhood,” he added. “He said, ‘I’m doing what I want to do.’ ”

The discovery of Hernandez answered the prayers of desperate family members who had started to give up hope in recent months.

The Tacoma, Wash., resident, who has suffered from Alzheimer’s disease for about four years, was visiting six of his nine children in the Los Angeles area when he disappeared from his son’s home on the morning of Aug. 11.

Frantic family members searched for him day and night and posted signs in several neighboring communities with a picture that said “Grandpa’s Missing” in English and Spanish.

“We spent a lot of sleepless nights wondering and wanting to know what had become of him,” said Banagas, who lives in Downey. “I would see an old man on the streets and my heart would just break. It was hard not knowing where he was, or whether he was even alive.”

Banagas said she never thought to look for her father in East Los Angeles, since it’s about 15 miles from where he disappeared. Two days before he was found, one of Banagas’ sisters had dinner at the Soto Street McDonald’s where their father ate most of his meals.

Banagas said her father is happy to be back home, even though he still cannot explain what happened. He spends most of his time now gardening or helping with the dishes. His children, who plan to share the responsibility for his well-being, are also keeping a close eye on him.