LITTLE ROCK – A man kept in isolation after he was diagnosed with contagious tuberculosis broke a hospital window and fled from his room at a Little Rock hospital.
Franklin Greenwood, 50, was placed in isolation on June 29 after he was seen coughing up blood outside of the city’s traffic court and was released by a judge to the state Health Department’s custody. He left the hospital on July 1. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported Greenwood’s disappearance in Wednesday’s editions.
A state health official said Greenwood has a form of tuberculosis that would respond to treatment but that it is still important to find him because he is contagious.
Greenwood had been at Little Rock District Court for traffic offenses, officials said. He was taken to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences hospital, where he was under a medical isolation order, according to the Health Department.
State tuberculosis control officer Dr. Iram Bakhtawar wrote in a draft affidavit that Greenwood is believed to have “an active case of tuberculosis in an active state and in a communicable form.”
The affidavit said Greenwood had previously been treated for the lung disease but did not complete treatment. The document shows that recent chest X-rays indicated Greenwood’s tuberculosis was getting worse.
State deputy health officer Dr. Joe Bates said Greenwood left the hospital before all tests could be completed.
“We’d like to have more information than we have, but I think its highly probable, highly, highly probable that he’s infectious to others,” Bates said. “If he would take the treatment, he would become rapidly noninfectious.”
Tuberculosis is transmitted by air in nearly all cases. Active TB patients normally cough, dispersing particles that can float in the air for hours.
UAMS spokeswoman Leslie Taylor said the hospital had no authority to keep Greenwood in custody but kept a civilian worker outside his room.
“He wasn’t in our custody. DHHS had put him here under a medical hold, but it wasn’t anything that we had officers there to keep him there,” Taylor said.
“When it was discovered that he had left, everyone was notified,” she said.
State police spokesman Bill Sadler says the agency was notified of the escape on July 2, a day after Greenwood got out. He said troopers were told to watch for him. Spokesmen for the Little Rock police and the Pulaski County Sheriff’s Department say they were not told about Greenwood.
Greenwood is described as a thin white male with a ruddy complexion, a ragged appearance and shoulder-length hair. He is 5 feet, 10 inches and weighs about 150 pounds.
