Published: 10.02.2006
UMC seeks public's help to identify patient
By DAVID L. TEIBEL
Tucson Citizen
University Medical Center is seeking public help trying to identify a man who was injured in a vehicle accident and has lain in a hospital bed for nearly a month, unable to communicate.
The man is described as Hispanic, in his early to mid-30s, 5-feet-6, 143 pounds, with brown eyes, short, straight black hair in a buzz cut and he has a black mustache and goatee, said Jean Spinelli, a UMC spokeswoman.
The man's inability to communicate is an effect of a head injury he sustained in the Sept. 6 crash, Spinelli said.
The man was injured in a crash that killed another man and a 13-year-old boy, Spinelli said.
In that crash the driver of the SUV they were in fled a U.S. Border Patrol agent and a Tohono O'odham police officer on South Mission Road near West Valencia Road, a Border Patrol spokesman said last month.
An agent spotted the SUV, a 2004 Dodge Durango that had been reported stolen, heading north on South Mission Road, just south of West Valencia Road, about 4 a.m.
Border Patrol Agent Jesus Rodriguez said the agent suspected the SUV was carrying drugs or illegal immigrants, turned on his emergency lights and siren and tried to pull over the SUV.
The driver fled and the agent turned off his emergency gear and followed at or below the speed limit whille calling for help from Tohono O'odham police as the driver had fled onto the Tohono O'odham Nation.
As the SUV driver continued to flee, the SUV hit a dip in the road and rolled.
When authorities arrived they found the dead man, three other men and three women and the boy, Rodriguez said. He said they all were taken to hospitals either for treatment or examination. The 13-year old died later that day.
Spinelli did not know whether the injured man UMC is trying to identify was the SUV's driver or one of its passengers.
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