Austin's 'Leslie' is hospitalized

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Albert "Leslie" Cochran, who this month said he planned to leave Austin and move back to Colorado, is listed in critical condition in a local hospital.

St. David's South Austin Medical Center on Monday confirmed that Cochran has been admitted.

Earlier in the day, Cochran's friend Debbie Russell said that Austin's best-known homeless person had been found unconscious on Feb. 16 in a parking lot off South First Street. Russell said Cochran had regained consciousness at the hospital but took a turn for the worse before he had recuperated enough to be released.

The hospital declined to provide any details on Cochran's treatment but Russell said he underwent a procedure on his brain.

Cochran has been in declining health since injuring his head in an accident in October 2009.

"He's had a harder time functioning and isn't able to be quite as gracious a guest at his old haunts along South First Street," Russell said in an email.

Cochran apparently had become ill the same day he told KXAN of his plans to leave Austin and return to a city northwest of Denver where he had lived some 30 years before.

Earlier that week, he had stopped by Goodie Two Shoes on South Congress Avenue to say goodbye to owner Christine Ann, another friend, according to the shop's public relations manager Neil Diaz.

Cochran was on his way to the train station to see if he could get a train ticket when a KXAN crew caught up with him. As to why he is leaving Austin, he replied: "You gotta do what you gotta do."