Paraplegic man dumped in LA gutter sues hospital

[CptSternn]

http://news.**********/s/nm/homeless...W9bS7px3us0NUE

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A mentally ill paraplegic man filed a lawsuit on Thursday against a hospital that dumped him in a gutter on Los Angeles' "Skid Row" -- a case that highlighted the plight of the city's vast homeless population.

Gabino Olvera, 42, sued the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center for negligence after it discharged him in February 2007, took him across town in a van and left him in a soiled hospital gown without a wheelchair in the heart of the city's homeless area.

Witnesses who came to Olvera's aid said they saw him dragging himself on the ground with hospital papers and documents clenched in his teeth while the driver sat in her van and applied makeup before driving off.

The incident was captured by security cameras at a nearby homeless shelter.

Hernan Vera, a lawyer with Public Counsel, which helped bring the lawsuit on behalf on Olvera, called it "the most obscene and callous example of this practice that we have seen."

The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court and seeks unspecified damages.

Hollywood Presbyterian said in a statement it had thoroughly reviewed its patient discharge policies to ensure nothing of the sort ever happened again.

The hospital added it had held extensive talks with Olvera's lawyers and remained optimistic about reaching a satisfactory out-of-court settlement.

The Olvera case was one of about 50 reported incidents in the past 12 months of sick, confused and homeless patients being left by ambulances in the 50-block area of downtown Los Angeles thought to have the highest concentration of homeless people in the United States.

Estimates of the number of homeless in the United States ranges from 500,000 to more than a million.

In Los Angeles, an estimated 12,000 people, many of them mentally ill or addicted to drugs and alcohol, live and sleep on the streets of the area known as Skid Row.

Vera called Los Angeles "ground zero in the fight against unlawful dumping of homeless patients by hospitals."

Lawyers for Olvera said one of the goals of the lawsuit was to force local hospitals to change their practices.

In May, Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, the country's largest nonprofit health-care provider, settled a lawsuit involving the dumping of another patient by agreeing to find shelter places for all patients it discharges in Los Angeles.

Kaiser also agreed to improve discharge procedures and to contribute $500,000 to homeless services on Skid Row.

We have a political discussion on this very topic here:

https://www.gothic.net/boards/showth...ht=health+care

But thought it needed posting in the news section as well, since it is new.

All I have to say is...thank GOD I live in a country that has free, socialised healthcare!

[Madarame]

Wow, I just don't even have anything to say to that, absolutely shocking, I find it hard to belive anyone be so callous. I too am glad I live where there is free healthcare.

[HumanePain]

This has been going on for years, and will continue to go on, because most Americans do not care about the homeless.

Now that globalization has reduced the income of middle class Americans, and they are even more stressed by rising gasoline prices, there will be even more self absorbed self centered survival attitudes leaving no compassion at all for the homeless. It will now get worse, while doctors and hospitals increase their salaries and service charges every year ahead of inflation.

I believe in captialism, and businesses should be free to let the market dictate their pricing, but when it comes to basic services such as food, shelter, education and healthcare, we need to regulate and insure that everyone is receiving at least minimum standards of decency in their care, not dumped like so much refuse. Oh the humanity!

[Tam Li Hua]

I would very much like to live in a country with free healthcare specifically because of this sort of thing...

[Crying_Crimson_Tears]

This just makes me sick. The homeless deserve the same treatment from hospitals that those who aren't homeless get. It makes me sick to see this happening.

[Green.Lady]

Originally Posted by CptSternn

All I have to say is...thank GOD I live in a country that has free, socialised healthcare!

My goodness... me too, I can't imagine what we'd do without it.

This makes me so sad, and I really hope that, one day, the US will jump on the free healthcare bandwagon. Seriously, the UK, Canada, Cuba, Ireland, France and countless other countries have it, and yet one of the world's biggest superpowers doesn't. I can't believe that 300 million innocent people are denied such a basic human right every day.

[Godslayer Jillian]

You people need Jesus.
Love it or leave it!

[AngelikDemonik]

I'd be suing that hospital for abandonment, as well.

[raggedyanne]

It's disgusting. Kaiser is somewhere I wouldn't take my neighbors dying rat after the way they treated my grandmother when she broke her arm. Dumping patients? It's inhumane! I agree that America should have free health care, but seeing as we're oil whores, that probably won't happen for the next few decades.

[CptSternn]

The heath care industry is the second largest industry, following the defence industry which is the largest industry in America.

With so many companies making so much money hand over fist at the expense of the American people, and with those same companies having unlimited power and influence over the American government, I don't see change coming anytime soon.

Who is the largest recipient of heath care lobbyist funds? Hilliary Clinton.