Family finds man in Fontana 3 days after being discharged from San Bernardino hospital without notice

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. (KABC) -- A 30-year-old man went missing after being discharged from Community Hospital of San Bernardino and was found three days later in a Fontana church.

It had been three days since Gricelda Ramos saw her son Javier, and she was worried sick.

"He's not good. That's why he went to the hospital because he wasn't doing good," she said in Spanish.

Ramos' family said recently he began experiencing mental health episodes. Her sister said it got so bad that he called his younger brother for help on Sunday.

"He was just saying, 'I'm scared.' That he kept hearing voices telling him things. That there were cameras watching him," sister Ivet Ramos said.

Ramos' mother, who worried her son might harm himself, said she and his younger brother took him to the hospital to be evaluated. They were prepared to stay with him while he was being seen.

"She asked them, 'Can I stay with him?' They told him, 'No, you can't stay.' My mom asked, 'OK, is he going to be safe here?' and they said, 'Yeah, he's going to be safe. The nurses are going to be watching and there's going to be security here,'" Ivet Ramos said.

Ramos' brother, Antonio Ramos, said hospital staff took his number and told him they would call him or their mother if Javier was discharged, but they never did.

They learned Ramos was discharged around 3 a.m. Monday with some medication. After searching for him, the family filed a missing person's report. They said the hospital refused to help them and gave them different versions of Ramos' state of mind at the time of his discharge.

"The story keeps changing and we just want to know what actually happened to him," Antonio Ramos said.

Dignity Health, which operates the hospital, released a statement.

"We can confirm that the patient was evaluated and safely discharged," the statement said, in part.

Because of patient privacy they could not go into detail. The Ramos family was hopeful someone will help them find Javier soon.

"We want him back home and we want him safe," Ivet Ramos said.

Late Thursday, Javier Ramos was found sitting inside a church in Fontana, the family said. They said he'd walked to the church and it was a place where his mother used to take him.

When he was found, he had blisters on his feet and appeared sunburned, but was otherwise in good health, according to his family.