Quarantined TB patient flees Arkansas hospital

50-year-old man with contagious infection broke window and fled

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TB fugitive escapes hospital
July 12: A tuberculosis patient breaks out of an Arkansas hospital. KARK's Kim Betton reports

NBC News Channel

updated 6:25 p.m. ET July 12, 2007

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - A man placed in isolation after he was diagnosed with contagious tuberculosis broke a hospital window and fled, health officials said.

Unlike the Georgia lawyer who was under a federal quarantine after flying to Europe with what was then believed to be extensively drug-resistant TB, Arkansas health officials said the man who fled has a form of tuberculosis that would respond to treatment.

Franklin Greenwood, 50, is still contagious, though, health officials said.

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Greenwood was placed in isolation at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences hospital on June 29 after he was seen coughing up blood outside the city’s traffic court. He left the hospital on July 1.

UAMS spokeswoman Leslie Taylor said the hospital had no authority to detain Greenwood but kept a civilian worker outside his room.

State police spokesman Bill Sadler says the agency was notified and troopers were told to watch for Greenwood.

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