Results 1 to 4 of 4

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

  1. #1
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    North Carolina
    Posts
    8,399

    Hospital van dumps paraplegic on Skid Row

    http://www.azstarnet.com/news/168594

    Nation
    Hospital van dumps paraplegic on Skid Row
    The Associated Press
    Tucson, Arizona | Published: 02.10.2007

    LOS ANGELES — A hospital van dropped off a homeless paraplegic man on Skid Row and left him crawling in the street with nothing more than a soiled gown and a broken colostomy bag, police said.

    Witnesses who said they saw the incident Thursday wrote down a phone number on the van and took down its license-plate number, which helped detectives connect the vehicle to Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, the Los Angeles Times reported Friday.

    Police said the incident was a case of "homeless dumping" and were questioning officials from the hospital.

    "I can't think of anything colder than that," said Detective Russ Long.

    "There was no mission around, no services. It's the worst area of Skid Row."

    Dan Springer, a spokesman for the medical center, did not confirm or deny that the van carrying the homeless man came from Hollywood Presbyterian. He said an internal investigation was under way and pledged cooperation with any outside investigation.

    "These are very serious allegations. Our goal is to get to the bottom of exactly what happened. If we determine a mistake of this magnitude was made, we will respond swiftly and appropriately," Springer said.

    The case comes three months after the city attorney's office filed its first indictment for homeless dumping against Kaiser Permanente for an incident earlier last year.

    In that case, a 63-year-old patient from the hospital's Bellflower Medical Center was videotaped wandering the streets of Skid Row in a hospital gown and socks.

    City officials have accused more than a dozen hospitals of dumping patients and criminals on Skid Row. Hospital officials have denied the allegations, but some said they had taken homeless patients to Skid Row service providers.

    Hollywood Presbyterian was accused of homeless dumping in 2005. A top executive denied the charge then but said Skid Row service providers offered treatment and care for some patients who had nowhere else to go.
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  2. #2
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Jun 2005
    Location
    North Carolina
    Posts
    8,399
    http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... -headlines

    Hospital's account of 'dumping' case disputed
    LAPD and shelter officials contradict the facility's explanation for how a paraplegic homeless patient was left in a gutter on skid row.

    By Cara Mia DiMassa and Richard Winton, Times Staff Writers
    February 10, 2007

    Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, accused by authorities in at least two incidents of dumping homeless patients, said Friday that its own preliminary investigation into why a hospital-hired van left a paraplegic man on a skid row street this week found that the actions were not in keeping with hospital policy.

    The hospital offered its own account of how the patient ended up on skid row Thursday, but the Los Angeles Police Department and a homeless-shelter official disputed key portions of the explanation.

    Meanwhile, the city attorney's office said it is expanding its ongoing investigation of the hospital, which has previously been accused of dumping homeless patients, to include the Thursday incident, which was met Friday with widespread disgust and outrage from civic leaders.

    "This is obviously shameless," said City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo, whose office criminally charged Kaiser hospitals three months ago in a similar dumping case. "We were thinking the hospitals in this city had gotten the message," he added. "They continue to flout the law."

    The hospital said it had no explanation for why the van driver allegedly ignored the cries of onlookers to help the 41-year-old man and instead proceeded to apply makeup and perfume before driving off, leaving the man in a gutter.

    The hospital, which has hired the crisis firm Sitrick and Co. to help it through a storm of criticism, said the van driver worked for Empire Enterprise Inc., a company contracted by the hospital.

    "The gravity of this case is extreme," said hospital spokesman Dan Springer. "There is no doubt that the appearance of what took place is not pleasant. And the hospital is going to work diligently to make sure we get to the bottom of exactly what happened."

    The practice has plagued downtown for years, but in the last two years, several hospitals and law enforcement agencies have been directly accused of dumping homeless patients on the streets of skid row without bringing them to a mission or service provider.

    Thursday's incident was witnessed by more than two dozen people. Police called it a particularly egregious example.

    Witnesses told police that the paraplegic man — who wore a soiled hospital gown and had a broken colostomy bag and no wheelchair or walker — propped himself up in the door of the van, then hurled himself from the vehicle, tumbling to the street. He pulled himself along, dragging a bag of his belongings in his clenched teeth, until he was rescued from the gutter about 11 that morning and taken to County USC Medical Center.

    Springer said the hospital's preliminary investigation showed that a hospital ambulance had tried to take the man early in the morning to the Midnight Mission, which he had listed on hospital forms as his home address. But Springer said the ambulance was turned away because there was no room at the mission.

    The man was returned to the hospital's emergency room, Springer said; after a shift change, new personnel tried to take the man to his listed address in the van. Springer said he did not know whether those personnel knew of the previous attempt or that the address was a mission.

    But Springer said that on the second attempt, when the van neared the mission, the man "asked the driver to open the door and let him out…. He assured the driver that his wheelchair was at his home and that he could propel himself to his home from the park."

    That explanation contradicts police accounts from Thursday.

    LAPD Officer Eric de la Cruz said he asked the man if he had requested to be dropped off at the location.

    "He said he had nowhere else to go, and the hospital staff told him he could no longer stay there," De la Cruz said.

    De La Cruz's commander, Capt. Andrew Smith of the LAPD's Central Division, said the man appeared to be "confused and disoriented" when police encountered him.

    "I am not sure what this hospital's policies are, but the end result was outrageous, even to homeless individuals who have seen everything out on the streets," Smith said.

    Orlando Ward, a spokesman for the Midnight Mission, disputed another part of the hospital's account Friday. He said a review of security tapes and interviews with staff showed that the patient was brought to the mission around 1 a.m. Thursday on a gurney by two ambulance attendants. Mission staff members asked the attendants for after-care instructions for the patient, who had no wheelchair, and after that discussion the attendants decided to return the man to the hospital. Ward also said no one was turned away from the mission this week.



    Ward said mission officials had been working with the Hospital Assn. of Southern California to develop a universal form for hospitals to use when referring homeless patients to shelters.

    "The case managers here get the details and sign it and fax it back before the person is transported," he said. "That obviously did not happen in that case."

    Jim Lott, executive vice president of the Hospital Assn. of Southern California, acknowledged Friday that "this one slipped through the cracks."

    Lott said Hollywood Presbyterian had "very strong protocols" in place guiding the release of homeless patients but it was evident they had not been not followed in this case.

    "We aren't making any excuses for it," he said.
    Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

  3. #3
    Banned
    Join Date
    Aug 2006
    Location
    North Carolina
    Posts
    2,457
    This is really sickening.

  4. #4
    Senior Member loservillelabor's Avatar
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Loserville KY
    Posts
    4,799
    If we determine a mistake of this magnitude was made, we will respond swiftly and appropriately," Springer said.
    Jim Lott, executive vice president of the Hospital Assn. of Southern California, acknowledged Friday that "this one slipped through the cracks."
    Unemployment is not working. Deport illegal alien workers now! Join our efforts to Secure America's Borders and End Illegal Immigration by Joining ALIPAC's E-Mail Alerts network (CLICK HERE)

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •