03:28 PM CDT on Wednesday, May 10, 2006

Houma Courier

HOUMA -- With swelling in his brain, no medication and a limited ability to understand his surroundings, Angelee Randolph had worried that time might run out for her son.

Michael Lynn Randolph, 45, had been hospitalized since an April 2 car crash left him with massive head and brain injuries until he escaped from Terrebonne General Medical Center on Sunday night, his worried mother said.

Early this morning, Randolph showed up in Lafayette, brought to a relative’s house by motorists who found him on the highway, passing in and out of consciousness but able to give them the family member’s address.

Angelee’s husband left for Lafayette shortly after the call around 5 a.m. If he is able to bring Randolph back, it will be the end of a three-day saga, fraught with worry, that started with the crash more than a month ago.

After the crash, Randolph spent two weeks in critical care, but when he regained consciousness, he had to be restrained to his hospital bed because his restless personality compelled him to want to leave, Angelee Randolph said. He tried to escape several times over the past month -- once trying to climb into the ceiling from his bathroom, and another time making it all the way out of the hospital, only to be found lost and scared in town by his parents.

"All he would talk about was leaving," she said. "He wanted out."

Prior to the crash, Randolph’s only mental problem was a deep, lingering depression over the death of his wife four years ago, his mother said. After his brain surgery, however, doctors told the family that the severity of his injuries would warrant long-term mental-health care, but his parents were stymied trying to find such a facility in Louisiana by Randolph’s lack of insurance.

Even correctly identifying common objects such as his mother’s watch was often impossible for the man. Well aware of Randolph’s poor mental condition and his desire to escape, the hospital had provided around-the-clock sitters for Randolph, but he managed to slip away during a staff shift change, Angelee Randolph said hospital officials told her.

"They did the best they could, but he was determined to get out of there," Angelee Randolph said. "They turned their backs, and I guess he’s gone."

Hospital officials said they could not comment because of patient-confidentiality laws.

When he left the hospital Sunday night, Randolph did not completely disappear. He went first to his old home on Morningside Drive, where he sometimes thinks he still lives, his mother said. A neighbor then brought him to his parents’ house in Mulberry, and his mother called police to take him back to the hospital, but he ran off when he saw the patrol car coming. He was spotted by an acquaintance Monday night on Cenac Street but was gone by the time his parents got there.

Randolph’s memory had recently started returning after the crash, and he may have remembered his 12-year-old daughter who lives in Beaumont, Texas, and decided to try to find her, the missing man’s mother said.

"He’s not mentally able to be on the streets," Angelee Randolph said.

Doctors had told the family that swelling in Randolph’s brain might take months to subside, and his mother worried that the heat outdoors might aggravate it. Or maybe he would hit his head somehow, or maybe his confusion would lead him to try to get into someone else’s house.

Now that her son has reappeared in Lafayette, those worries are over -- for now. Until he is safely returned to the hospital, Angelee Randolph said, she can’t be sure.