OPINION

With time running out, young heart patient taken from hospital found safe

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A 5-year-old heart patient who was on a transplant waiting list when he was taken from a St. Louis hospital by his father has been found safe just outside Chicago, authorities said.

Porter Stone was found at hospital in Alsip, Ill., and the father, 33-year-old Jeffery Stone, was in custody, a police dispatcher there, who declined to give her name because she wasn't authorized to talk to the news media, said early Wednesday. Fox2Now.com reported the three people were in custody.

A missing child alert had been issued after the boy was taken from the hospital Tuesday. St. Louis police Capt. Jim Moran told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch the boy's father didn't have legal custody.