The University of Texas Medical Branch has announced that the woman who was admitted to the hospital but was unidentifiable has been identified.
Hospital officials said that the time that they needed assistance identifying a Black woman who was admitted on Sept. 15 without any identification.
At the time, she was referred to as Jane Doe and was believed to be between 17 and 24 years old. She measured in at 5 feet 7 inches tall and weighed 110 pounds.
In a picture of her, she was identified as short with curly black hair and an unknown eye color.
After she was admitted, hospital officials reached out to the public to help in identifying her. She was identified days later. No other information was released about the woman.
“Typically, unidentified patients that arrive at hospitals are pedestrians or cyclists who left their house without their ID, Abram reports. Other common reasons people end up in the hospital as unidentified patients include cognitive impairment, psychosis, or drug overdoses,” reads a report in the Workforce of Tomorrow. “Unidentified patients are more than just a logistical challenge. When patients are unidentified, providers have no access to their medical history, which places patients at risk for treatment issues, such unknown medication allergies or pre-existing conditions.”
The report continues: “In some cases, the unknown patient’s family or police helping to locate the individual may reach out to the hospital, but federal patient privacy law can prevent hospitals from releasing information about unidentified patients, Abram reports. The issue gained attention in 2016, when a man with Alzheimer’s disease was admitted to a New York hospital as an unidentified person, or “Trauma XXX.” The hospital received inquiries from the man’s family and police but told them the man was not there.”
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