Police: Hospital van spotted dumping paraplegic man on Skid Row
MICHAEL R. BLOOD
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - Even on Skid Row, where life and dignity are cheap, it was a shocking scene: a paraplegic man "sliding along his bottom using his hands," carrying his meager belongings in a plastic hospital bag he clutched in his teeth.
Police said the man, who was dragging a colostomy bag behind him, had been dumped out on the sidewalk by the driver of a hospital van.
The witnesses to the dumping, all homeless people, began shouting, "Where is his wheelchair, where is his walker," police Det. Russ Long told The Associated Press on Friday. They told officers the driver responded that the man defecated in the van and had to be removed.
"It looks like a shocking case of neglect at this point," Long said. "If there is an explanation it just eludes me at this point.
"He was sliding along on his bottom using his hands," Long said. "He had a hospital property bag in his mouth, in his teeth, and he was trailing a colostomy bag, which was malfunctioning."
The witnesses told police a van from Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center pulled up to a tiny park in the grimy area near downtown at 10:45 a.m. Thursday, a side door opened and a man, dressed in a green hospital gown and pants, began struggling to get out. The driver looked on.
"His pants fell around his ankles. He fell onto the curb with his legs dangling onto the street," Long said. "He reached down and grabbed his pants, pulled his legs onto the sidewalk. Witnesses said the van would have run over his legs if he hadn't have done that."
Other homeless people in the area helped the disoriented man into the park. A police bicycle patrol arrived by chance within a minute and called an ambulance.
The man, whose name was not released, was described as a 41-year-old Hispanic. He was wearing a bracelet from the hospital, Long said.
Dan Springer, a spokesman for the medical center, did not confirm or deny that the van carrying the 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 man was taken to another hospital. Police did not disclose his condition.
The case comes three months after the city attorney's office filed its first indictment for homeless dumping against Kaiser Permanente Hospital 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.
In 2005, Hollywood Presbyterian was accused of homeless dumping. At the time, a top executive denied the charge, but said Skid Row service providers offered treatment and care for some patients who had nowhere else to go.
A recent crackdown on crime around Skid Row has resulted in a migration of homeless people out of downtown, significantly reducing the area's transient population but also putting a strain on homeless service providers elsewhere.
Last month, 875 people were living on the streets surrounding Skid Row, according to a Police Department count. That compares to 1,345 people at about the same time last year.
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