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(L.A Times)-A paraplegic man wearing a soiled hospital gown and a broken colostomy bag was found crawling in a gutter in skid row in Los Angeles on Thursday after allegedly being dumped in the street by a Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center van, police said.
The incident, witnessed by more than two dozen people, was described by police as a particularly outrageous case of "homeless dumping" that has plagued the downtown area.
"I can't think of anything colder than that," said LAPD Det. Russ Long, who called the case the most egregious of its kind that he has seen in his career. "There was no mission around, no services. It's the worst area of skid row."
Los Angeles Police Department detectives said they connected the van to Hollywood Presbyterian after witnesses wrote down a phone number on the van and took down its license-plate number.
They are questioning officials from the hospital, which the LAPD had accused in an earlier dumping case that is now under investigation
They are questioning officials from the hospital, which the LAPD had accused in an earlier dumping case that is now under investigation
Gary Lett, an employee at Gladys Park, near where the incident occurred, said the woman driving the van didn't reply, but proceeded to apply makeup and perfume before driving off.
"She didn't make any attempt to help him," Lett said. "He was in bad shape. He was incoherent."
When the hospital was previously accused of dumping in 2005, a top executive said the facility takes discharged patients to Los Angeles Mission at their request.
The case comes three months after the L.A. city attorney's office filed the first indictment for homeless dumping against Kaiser Permanente. The charges stem from an incident earlier last year when a 63-year-old patient from Kaiser Permanente's Bellflower medical center was videotaped as she stepped from a taxi in gown and socks and then wandered the streets of skid row.
Los Angeles officials have accused more than a dozen hospitals, as well as some outside law enforcement agencies, of dumping patients and criminals on downtown's troubled skid row. The city attorney's office said it was considering filing charges against several other medical facilities.
But there was no shortage of people willing to describe what they saw about 10:45 a.m. Thursday morning, when the white hospital van pulled up several feet from the curb.
Witnesses told police that the man propped himself up in the door of the van. He then hurled himself from the vehicle, tumbling to the street. He pulled himself along, dragging a bag of his belongings in his clenched teeth.
The LAPD has accused several hospitals of dumping patients on skid row over the last two years, including Kaiser's West Los Angeles hospital, Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center and Los Angeles Metropolitan Medical Center.
Originally posted by racerzeke
why must you bash america because of a few corrupted hospitals? surely hospitals in other countries have done the same, maybe even worse
Originally posted by Black_Fox
Originally posted by racerzeke
why must you bash america because of a few corrupted hospitals? surely hospitals in other countries have done the same, maybe even worse
Im not bashing America exactly.
Just pointing out how our society is in its decline,loook around you.
This is just another example of it.
We live in a country in which we have billions of dollars to fight bogus wars,but not to help people with healthcare or cost of living.
We live in a country in which "Eminent Domain" says the goverment can take your land and house without your say so.
We live in a country in which,if you have no healthcare,you're basically left for dead.Seeing as most doctors wont touch you without it.
We spend billions of dollars on helping feed oand rebuild other countries,while our own starving homeless go without much help.
We live in a country in which our politicians no longer listen to its people.
We live in a country that sells its people fear on a silver platter,yet our borders remain a joke.
We live in a country where a border gaurd does his job,and gets sent to prison for it.
We live in a country in which a man shotting a basketball or pitching a baseball is worth more than a doctor,teacher,soldier,cop.
You're right when you said things are far worse in other countries,but look around you,how far away are we from that?