INDIANAPOLIS — Police and family say man with a traumatic brain injury and schizophrenia walked out of Methodist Hospital last week and is still missing.
"I call the Marion County coroner," said Beth Bridgford, wiping her eyes as the tears coming out them slide down her cheeks.
It's a phone call Beth has made almost every day for the past week.
"Usually, they put you on hold. The whole time I'm on hold, I'm praying that they don't come back and tell me what I don't want to hear. It's excruciating," Bridgford explained.
What this mother is praying she doesn't hear is that her son, 31-year-old Nicholas Hisle, is in the morgue.
IMPD said Nick walked out of IU Health Methodist Hospital last week, only wearing a hospital gown, with a traumatic brain injury after being hit by a car.
"A hospital gown. No shoes. No socks. It seems like someone would have seen him," Bridgford said. "I don't understand. He disappeared. To me, it's like he just disappeared."
A spokesperson for Methodist Hospital couldn't confirm or deny that Nick was even a patient at the hospital, citing patient privacy.
The spokesperson said when a patient leaves the hospital without being discharged properly, the hospital follows certain steps to try and locate the person, like calling police and the patient's family.
"They called me on Sunday, November 29th at 9:30 a.m., and told me they did not know where Nick was," Bridgford said.
This isn't the first time Nick has disappeared.
"Nick has schizophrenia," his mother explained, saying he was diagnosed two years ago, but was doing better with medicine.
This past July, though, Nick disappeared after going on some job interviews in Indianapolis. Beth filed a missing person report, but with no luck.
Then, in early November, Methodist Hospital called, saying Nick was there and had been hit by a car.
"They didn't know if he was going to make it. He was on a ventilator and unconscious," Bridgford said.
Slowly though, over the next few weeks, Nick improved. But Bridgford said he was still agitated, sometimes fighting to leave.
She said the hospital put him in a bed with a mesh enclosure around it and a zipper only on the outside, to prevent him from leaving. Instead, that's just what Bridgford and police say happened.
"I was worried about this exact scenario," Bridgford said, explaining that she had told doctors her concerns and was assured Nick would be safe.
Now that one of her worst fears has come true, this mother's new worries are about whether her son is even alive still and how she can find him and get him to a hospital.
"It would be a good time for a Christmas miracle," she said.
Nicholas Hisle is 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighs 190 pounds. He has brown hair and blue eyes and stitches in his head. He was last seen wearing a hospital gown and is known to frequent the Brookside Park area on the east side.
Nick has a traumatic brain injury and is currently off his psychiatric medication.
If you have any information about his whereabouts, you can call the IMPD Missing Person Unit at 317-327-6160 or Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at 317-262-TIPS.
Bridgford said she also wants her number out there in case people feel more comfortable reaching out to her. Her number is 317-315-3266.