Elderly Man Goes Missing from Hospital on Freezing Night: One Officer's Hunch 'Saved His Life'

On Dec. 1, 2021, an elderly gentleman receiving care for an infection at the Chesterfield Royal Hospital in Calow, England, got up and exited the hospital shortly before midnight, and no one saw him leave. It was around…

IJR SyndicatedJan 26, 20223 min read

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Six hours into the ordeal, the National Police Air Service was called to assist the search by helicopter — but before they arrived, the officer flying the drone decided to act on a hunch, using the last little bit of battery the drone had.

Instead of looking north, Sergeant Kev Harrell with the Derbyshire Constabulary guided the drone south.

“My heart skipped a beat when I located a heat source in a field — a heat source of a person — in a ditch behind some houses,” Harrell said, according to a Facebook post by the Derbyshire Constabulary.

“I guided local officers in with the aid of the floodlight on the drone and it was great news. The heat source was the missing man we had been looking for.

“He was found, freezing cold and clearly unwell at 5.30am on 2 December, approximately six hours after he had walked out of the hospital. Medical staff later confirmed that if he had not been found at that time, he would have likely died from hypothermia.

“It was a great effort from all involved and just goes to show the importance of having a drone readily available for deployment, and the fact that it saves lives.”

The Elderly man recovered from both his outing and his infection and is now back home — a fact that his family is very grateful for.

“That night, officers did a brilliant job, working tirelessly to find my dad and ensure that he was safe,” the man’s daughter said, according to the Facebook post.

“People need to know about this, as without the Police and their ability to access a drone the outcome could have been so different. Offering my gratitude and sharing this story is the least I can do after you have saved his life, thank you so much.”

It wasn’t the first time these officers had pulled off a miracle: One commenter chimed in to thank them for their help the previous year.

“On 25.01.21 (a year coming up) my precious husband, who has dementia, went missing in the Hope valley,” Sandra Pinz wrote on the Derbyshire Constabulary’s Facebook post.

“Sleet, freezing temps. He’d fallen in a ditch. If it wasn’t for the incredible work of Derbyshire Constabulary, he would have died. I will NEVER forget their help.”

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.