Authorities: Search for Missing Hospital Patient Found in Stairwell Was Delayed
SAN FRANCISCO — It took nine days for San Francisco General Hospital employees to order a full search for Lynne Spaulding, after she disappeared, according to authorities.
Police found Spaulding’s body on Oct. 8, 17 days after the patient, who had checked into the hospital for a bladder infection, had gone missing. Hospital officials initially reported Spaulding as a missing African American woman, while the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department, which oversees security at the hospital, described her as an Asian in a log book, CNN reports.
Representatives for the Sheriff’s Department revealed that only half of the stairwells were searched when looking for the woman. Authorities also claimed that understaffing, an antiquated dispatch system and unreliable video cameras hampered the search, ABC 7 San Francisco reports.
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