Deputies and police say a hospital patient stole a car Tuesday afternoon, and led them on a high speed chase on Highway 12 in Eau Claire reaching speeds between 65 and 85-miles per hour.

It's unclear why he was a patient at Luther Hospital but sheriff's deputies say he was admitted Monday and walked out Tuesday afternoon.

Deputies say when the suspect was arrested; he still had an IV in him and they say because of cooperation between several departments, no one was seriously hurt.

The Eau Claire Police Department says a 19-year-man walked out of Luther Hospital and stole a car out of the parking lot.

Officers say the owner of the white Saturn that was stolen left his keys in the car. Police says he was picking someone up at Luther and when he came out, officers say he saw the suspect stealing his car.

"In the process of that car being stolen the person who took the car ran into the owner of the car, the owner ended up on the hood of the car as the car continued to drive away," says Sergeant Carl Duncan.

Sergeant Carl Duncan with the Eau Claire County Sheriff's Department says just minutes later, an Altoona Police Officer spotted the car and tried to pull it over but he says the suspect rammed into the Altoona Patrol Car, and that's when the chase down Highway 12 started.

"It's dangerous for the people we are pursuing; it's dangerous for us as the pursuers. We don't like these situations because we do put everybody in a larger amount of danger," says Sgt. Duncan.

Sgt. Duncan says twice stop sticks were thrown down to end the chase, but he says the suspect managed to drive around them. After finally hitting a third set of sticks, deputies managed to slow the chase, and force the suspect off the road.

"We used a PIT maneuver, or pursuit intervention technique, where we spin the car around and that was done the driver lost control of the car and ended up down in the ditch," Sgt. Duncan.

"Anytime we get damage to our vehicles were not really happy but no body was hurt and that's our paramount concern," says Sgt. Duncan.

As of Tuesday night the suspect was still in the hospital but deputies say that they expected him to be transferred to the jail during the evening.

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