UPDATE: The man who's accused of taking a car from a hospital parking lot and leading officers on a high-speed chase is now charged.

Prosecutors filed charges of taking and driving a vehicle without consent, first-degree recklessly endangering safety, fleeing an officer and obstructing an officer against 19-year-old Robert Mattson of Augusta on Thursday. If convicted, he could spend 16 years in prison.

A criminal complaint shows Mattson's ex-girlfriend telling investigators that he left Luther Hospital when she told him she wouldn't go back to him. It goes on to say that the car eventually hit a device officers put in the road to deflate the car's tires and the car ended up in a field. The complaint says he told officers he swallowed a bottle full of prescription pills.

When they brought Mattson back to the hospital, deputies held him down while hospital staff gave him a solution to counter the effects of the medicine. That's when the complaint says he threatened to find and kill those deputies once he was released.

Mattson is scheduled to be back in court on Tuesday.
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UPDATE: 10/7 10:30 PM

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

We don't know why he was a patient at Luther Hospital but sheriff's deputies tell us 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 told WEAU that they expected him to be transferred to the jail during the evening.

ORIGINAL STORY 10/7

A patient walks out of an Eau Claire hospital, steals a car, hits the owner of the car and leads law enforcement officers on a high speed chase. That's what officers say happened in Eau Claire County Wednesday afternoon around 2:30 p.m.

The Sheriff’s Department says it doesn’t know why the suspect was in the hospital in the first place. Eau Claire Police say the owner of the car left the keys in it while he went to pick up someone at the hospital. When he came out, officers say he saw the suspect stealing the car, chased after the car, but the suspect hit him with the car. Police say that man has non-life threatening injuries.

Sergeant Carl Duncan with the Eau Claire County Sheriff's Department says after the suspect stole that car, he drove off into the county where speeds reached up to 85 miles per hour. Sergeant Duncan says stop sticks were used three times but the man managed to drive around the first two and keep going after he hit the third.

The chase finally ended just west of Augusta at Highway 12 and Stensen Road, but not until deputies rammed the stolen vehicle.

Duncan said, "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."

Duncan says the man will be brought back here to Luther Hospital to be treated, then he'll be taken to the Eau Claire County Jail.