First Published Wednesday, 9th July, 2008.

Autistic man found after week lost in Wisconsin woods back home

Undated courtesy photo of Keith Kennedy, the 25 year old autistic man who went missing from the Trade Lake Camp near Grantsburg Wis. on June 15. 2008. He is from Minneapolis. Kennedy is autistic and medically fragile due to a recent kidney transplant. He was last seen wearing an orange shirt. Anyone with information regarding his whereabouts should contact the THE BURNETT COUNTY SHERIFF S DEPT at 715-349-2128.

Keith Kennedy is back in his home.

Kennedy, 25, left the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview, on Saturday, two weeks after he was found clinging to life in the woods of northwestern Wisconsin.

In a message posted Monday at Kennedy’s Caring Bridge Web site — www.caringbridge.org/visit/keithkennedy1 — his family said he was back in his Shoreview group home “enjoying the comforts of his own room …”

“Everybody is unified in the desire to fatten up this skinny dude!” the message read.

Kennedy, who has autism, wandered away from a camp for adults with developmental disabilities near Grantsburg, Wis., June 15 and wasn’t seen for a week.

Hundreds of searchers scoured dozens of square miles of fields and overgrown forest before finding Kennedy lying in a fetal position near a stream about a mile west of the camp.

He had gone without an anti-rejection medication for a kidney transplant the entire week and was taken to the U of M hospital in critical condition.

He has steadily improved since then and is now eating and walking on his own.

Source:  http://www.twincities.com/news/ci_9809377?source=rss