The person who rescued a quadriplegic man abandoned in a park in Philadelphia, has said that God led him to the site.

Fitzroy Anderson, 55, found the disabled man, who has not been named, when he was on a cycle ride in Cobbs Creek Park on April 10. He was found wrapped in a blanket, with a Bible, and his discarded wheelchair nearby.

An arrest warrant was subsequently issued for the man's mother, Nyia Parler, 41, who was accused of abandoning her 21-year-old son on April 6.

Anderson told NBC Philadelphia that he had deviated from his usual route that day, and went deeper into the woods in order to take a photograph of some deer.

"Soon as they saw me they took off right down the creek so I followed them," Anderson said. "That's when I stumbled on the wheelchair."

It was then that he saw the bundle of blankets, which startled him, although he wasn't sure what it was. He started walking past, but couldn't ignore it.

He said that he was prompted by seeing something in the trees: "Two of the branches caught my eyes... It was a cross."

He notified the police and brought them back to the site.

Parler's son, who suffers from cerebral palsy, was taken to the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and treated for malnutrition, dehydration and exposure.

Anderson thinks God helped him find the man. "God got a lot to do with it," he said. "If it wasn't for those two deer and God, that young man wouldn't be alive today."

He was clearly distressed by the incident. "I walked home with tears in my eyes all the way home," Anderson said.

After the warrant was signed Parler was admitted to hospital on April 12, to be treated for an unknown condition. Police said on Tuesday that she may remain in hospital for a few more days, and will not be formally charged until her release.

She will face charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault, simple assault, reckless endangerment, neglect of a care-dependent person, unlawful restraint, kidnapping and false imprisonment.