8mm
Posted on 02/09/2007 4:50:13 PM PST by wagglebee
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.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
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Hospital Profit Taking Ping
Very shameful behavior by the Medical Center toward the guy.
I live in LA and hospital patients are routinely dumped. I know it sounds odd but th ehospitals get people that are homeless so they don't want to leave.
This, however, sounds like a tragic mistake.
Damn! That is sick. But it's californication so....
Where should they take him when he's discharged, your house?
"Police describe the homeless people who congregate around Gladys Park, in the heart of skid row, as a tough crowd who have seen much and say little."
What a awful story. That is a very good sentence though, very evocative.
Call me a compassionate conservative, but I really do believe we are a rich enough country to provide care to the idigent.
As for the "glamorous" van driver, well!
The Hippocratic Oath was abandoned long ago. But they still keep coming up with new ways to let us know it.
It doesn't sound as if he should have been discharged at all, but there are shelters.
This is not the proper way to discharge a patient. He was in that condition when they dumped him on the street.
I'm rather appalled at your comment. It's not like this is an able-bodied man who is able to take care of himself and make a living. I'm all for less government involvement in general, but I hope we never become a country that will not take care of those who cannot care for themselves and who have no family to care for them. I fear for the soul of anyone who would dump such a man, or anyone who would approve of someone else doing it.
My sis is a Physical therapist here in LA. She said the homeless guys in the hospital get 5***** treatment, and are in and out and in and out, as they don't take care of themselves.
Altho this seems to be terrible upon first reading, just where WOULD you 'return to their home' a homeless guy? To the condos they built for winos in Seattle? To the Salvation Army? To ...? It is a very good question.
Having worked at a neighborhood food program at our church for a number of years, I know darned well that many of these people are running scams like you wouldn't believe.
Roger Hedgecock, on Rush's program yesterday, said the new PC term for 'bums' is 'urban outdoorsmen.'
haahahha.
Oh, really? The second part of my comment was a question. Do you have an answer?
Actually, I do. I don't know what kind of options are out there for this man, but I would do my best to find out what they are. If nothing else, and/or until something could be implemented, yes, I would bring him to my home before I would dump him out on the street to fend for himself.
"And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." Matthew 25:40
"Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it NOT to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal." Matthew 25:45-46
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