Hospital Van Drops Paraplegic on Skid Row to Crawl on the Street

Three months ago the Los Angeles city attorney’s office filed charges against Kaiser Permanente for an incident last year involving a hospital dumping a homeless patient on Skid Row and driving away. The patient that time was a 63-year old homeless man from the hospital’s Bellflower medical center. A witness to the dumping filmed the man wandering the streets of Skid Row wearing nothing but a hospital gown and socks.

Thursday another hospital van was seen doing a similar thing. Witnesses who saw the incident said that a hospital van drove to Skid Row, stopped, dropped off a paraplegic man, and then drove away. The man was wearing only a soiled hospital gown, and he was left crawling on the street dragging behind him a broken colostomy bag, according to police records.

Witnesses made note of a phone number written on the side of the van, and took down the van’s license plate number. Detectives tracked the van to the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center.

Dan Springer, a spokesman for the hospital, told reporters that an internal investigation is underway, and he would not comment on whether or not the van that dumped the paraplegic man did come from his medical center. "We have, as do all hospitals, vans that transport patients," he said Friday. "It’s a contracted service. We are…looking into all the facts."

Over the past few years, Los Angeles city officials have accused more than a dozen hospitals of taking criminals and homeless people to Skid Row and dumping them off, then driving away. Hospital officials always deny the allegations, but some have explained away their actions by saying that they take homeless patients to Skid Row service providers such as shelters and soup kitchens.

Police said Thursday’s incident is undoubtedly a case of "homeless dumping," and investigators are questioning hospital staff and officials. "I can’t think of anything colder than that," Detective Russ Long told reporters. "There was no mission around, no services. It’s the worst area of Skid Row."

Springer did not corroborate whether or not hospital officials had been questioned by police, but he said that the hospital will cooperate with any official investigation. "These are very serious allegations," Springer said. "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."