In February 2007, the Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles abandoned Gabino Olvera, a mentally ill paraplegic man, on the street: “[The hospital] 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.” Olvera, with the help of an advocacy organization called Public Counsel, is now suing them for neglect and elder abuse (although we’re not sure how the second one applies since he’s only 42). His case is “one of about 50 reported incidents in the past 12 months of sick, confused and homeless patients being left by ambulances” in downtown LA.
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.
Olvera’s lawyers say that one purpose of the suit is to force area hospitals to stop illegally dumping the homeless.
“Paraplegic man dumped in LA gutter sues hospital” [Reuters]
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Just when I thought La-La land couldn’t get any worse.
Good God. The Fico story and now this. I’m ready to storm the gates, now. Who’s with me?
@Pithlit: Name the time. I’ll go make some torches. This stuff is disgusting.
This is one of the most horrible things I’ve read in quite a while. I’ll bring the pitchforks!
Watch Sicko. Michael Moore covers this phenomenon – the hospitals simply don’t want to waste money on people who can’t pay the piper.
@fluiddruid:
This is why either the government needs to quit making hospitals treat people who can’t pay or start paying for everyone who can’t pay via insurance.
And a hint to those of you who don’t like government social programs, you already pay for those who can’t. The hospital raises their rates on people who can pay (you) to break even. If the hospital didn’t have to treat them, your rates would go down.
I don’t really want to go down that road. Having to show your insurance card before the ambulance takes you doesn’t sit well with me. Therefore, the only alternative is universal health care.
I can partially understand how large, bureaucratically run institutions can do things like this (I’m not saying it’s right, but I can see how the people in charge can be distanced from what’s going on). What I CANNOT comprehend is how a human being (being the driver of the van) can just DUMP someone like this on the street. You’ve gotta be some sort of heartless bitch to just throw away a human being like this…
makes me happy i live in Canada.
Maybe they had a legit reason for this? Surely it must be his fault somehow; after all, *he’s* the one who’s homeless. We can’t have homeless people making homes in hospitals now. Then they wouldn’t be homeless.
this happens all the time in ca. i read about this at least once a month.
Here’s the thing…if it’s a private hospital (like many are), and this guy can’t pay for it, why should the hospital be paying to treat someone who can’t pay them? Dude, should be in a government hospital (like a county hospital). What ends up happening is that costs go up for the hospital, and then they pass this onto you. Is that fair? No.
@ShortBus: you bring a good point though, was the hospital supposed to take him home? oh yeah he lives on the street, so they did give a ride home.
let me ask this: where should they have taken him?
and, it doesn’t say if he still needed medical attention, AND they dropped him by a homeless shelter, what more do you want?
I am assuming he came in to the hospital originally through the ER. If so, the hospital is legally responsible to stabilize him. When the patient is about to be discharged, the hospital social workers and discharge planners should be working on his case to determine where he needs to be sent. Dumping a patient on the street is never, ever, EVER okay. Regardless of ability to pay. Why? Because a halfway decent hospital will have a system set up to deal with the indigent.
@kidgenius:
As I made the point above, its federal law. Is this fair? Perhaps not.
You make the distinction between state and private hospitals, which is a good one to make. The only problem I see is in rural areas where there are no public hospitals in the area. Where I grew up, the only hospital in a 20 mile radius is private (although being run by the Society of Mary, I bet they’d see anyone even if forced not to). What do you do then?
@snoop-blog: They are supposed to take them to a shelter. And for sure, they aren’t supposed to leave them in soiled hospital garments. And if they’re paraplegic, they’re not supposed to leave them dragging themselves across the fucking ground.
@snoop-blog: Hmmmm, I don’t know, maybe a homeless shelter? Just a wild and crazy idea I’m throwing out there.
@youbastid: um they did drop him right by a homeless shelter! rtfa.
@Pithlit: dido
i’m not saying i agree with the damn system. or that it is ok? just wanting to know what you suggest we do to fix our broken flawed system. if it was as easy as making a phone call to set this guy up, i’m sure it would have been done.
@snoop-blog: “Right by” =/= “Brought him in.”
btw, you can’t reserve a spot at a homeless shelter, it does not work that way. but most of you wouldn’t know anyhow.
@snoop-blog: Being fropped off BY a shelter is not the same as being dropped off AT a shelter. Especially when the man has no use of his legs and was left without a wheelchair.
Or, you know, dropped. Not fropped.
Technically, “elder abuse” is when your actions (or inactions) cause harm to any adult who is incapable of caring for himself. Not just for senior citizens.
The system is flawed on many levels in this case. If the patient was stable-ish, it might not be strictly illegal. Also, if he is proven to be somewhat mentally competent, it won’t be elder abuse. Heck, in most states, health care workers aren’t required to report abuse of adults or even spouses (so long as they aren’t stabbed or shot).
When it comes to psychologically disturbed homeless, the system is worse than broken. The solution of most states in the 80′s to the psych population was to close the facilities and put them on the street. But mentally incompetent homeless have a near impossible time finding consistent help.
Sucks for that guy, but from a business view, its not really fair for them to have to pay for his care either. People forget hospitals, in America, are a business, ran for profit. Its a crappy situation all the way around. But yes, they should have dropped him off IN the homeless shelter
@youbastid:
“Right by” =/= “Brought him in.”
yeah pretty much…….they could have made him walk from there if he was stable. anyone else besides me have a homeless guy come into your workplace and refuse to leave? and have to have the cops called on them just so they stop scaring your customers away? homeless people have even tried to run scams on me and my co-workers. live in the big city…….you’ll get numb to all the sob stories.
@B1663R: That’s a great idea, we’ll just start driving our homeless to Canada.
@snoop-blog: I suggest we have universal healthcare for everyone, like a lot of (other?) forward-thinking countries. It benefits all, it should be part of the commons of society… just like police protection, fire departments, libraries, road maintenance, public schools, etc. etc.
since he’s homeless, i’m going to assume he’s getting f-ed by his lawyer. that laywer’s mouth probably watered when he heard about this.
@fesslove: from a business point of view he is still a human. Try to keep that in mind, when human beings are involved the issue must include consideration of the HUMAN BEING POINT OF VIEW.
@snoop-blog: Did you RTFA? Guy has no use of his legs. Wasn’t doing any walking from anywhere.
And I live in LA. Don’t give me the “you just haven’t seen what it’s like for yourself” bit.
There was a 20/20 or one of those type of news shows did a story on this about a year ago. Not that particular guy. They showed hospital vans dumping an old woman still hooked up to an IV on skid row.
@ NOASALIRA Yeah, that is *PROBABLY* why I gave the business side AND the human side. Read my whole post before you respond?
@youbastid: already gave it to you.
@snoop-blog: We do know enough not to be all “What’s the prob?” about it. Honestly, do you really not understand what is so soul crushing about watching a paraplegic crawling on the ground in a soiled hospital gown with his hospital papers in his teeth? Maybe you’re blaze “What else were they supposed to do?” was your own way of reacting to a shocking story as well. That’s what I’m thinking. Sort of like inappropriate laughter at a funeral, or something. I think a WTF response is totally reasonable here as well though, even if one doesn’t have the whole health care issue wrapped up in a neat solution
@Pithlit: if you seen that guy on the streets, i’d bet my life savings you wouldn’t put him up for a few days. you probably wouldn’t even make eye contact, and walk by like you never saw him.
@Pithlit: “you’re” should be “your”
I don’t know. Since you seem to think the hospital did all it should have had to do, and those of us who are disgusted by their actions are crazy, I’m thinking you might want to rethink what kind of bets you place if you want to hold on to your money. You don’t have people pegged very well.
Stealing wheelchair from paraplegic > stealing candy from a baby. Both in difficulty and evilness.
please don’t keep taunting me as i cannot help myself and really don’t feel like getting banned so, i’ll leave you all with this, God works in mysterious ways.
@Pithlit: just how many homeless have you let stay with you? is it just that other homeless people aren’t as homeless as this guy? or do they have do be dumped from an ambulance before you’d let them stay with you. i was homeless for a while. so i hate it when everybody feels bad but in reality thats all they do.
@snoop-blog: Society’s attitude toward the homeless does indeed suck. You are absolutely right about that. That’s why this story is particularly egregious. I may have misinterpreted your posts here, but I do think that a lot of people read the above story and really think that there is nothing wrong with what that hospital did. They think that because they don’t think the homeless matter because they chose to be that way, and the rest of us shouldn’t expend any money or effort on their behalf.
the best part of when i was 9 and me and my mother were staying in the shelter was when people acted like we should have had help as if it was her fault. as if she didn’t try to get gov. assistance. its not at all like you think it would be. we stayed there for about a month before we could get gov. help.
Hum, that kind of reminds me of what started happening in Germany when Nazi became government.
Then they started killing mentally retarder and homeless…
He’s a HUMAN being. And how could a country be called civilized when life has a dollar amount? And health is purely profit? Why so many countries have universal coverage, and private healthcare in the same time? In any case, cost is always SPREAD between users. Either by private insurance or taxes. And from a financial point of view, universal coverage costs LESS than the mainly private system that is in use in USA right now.
Right now, only insurance companies profit from the system in USA. Not users. And not scrupulous hospitals.
And imagine YOU become homeless due to a set of circumstances. There so many things that could happen. If you become mentally ill who’s going to blame YOU for costing a buck to the system?
Looking up this “hospital”, it is a privately owned institution. But at the same time it is a teaching hospital associated with USC School of Medicine. This being said wouldn’t you think they are probably getting some of that lovely tax money for letting students come and get experience there? Between that and looking at their website, the whole thing reeks of mo’ money to me. Maybe someone in Cali ought to ask if that is the best and wisest use of money to associate with someone who has the morals of a loan shark. Scratch that, the loan shark would probably have higher morals. Wonderful what the doctors are learning too. No money, no rights. As far as I am concerned, homeless or not he is a human being and if they don’t want to treat him take him to a hospital that will care for him with a little dignity. Hearing things like that make me glad I am just a backwards redneck in Tennessee. Bet you wouldn’t see Vanderbilt Medical Center do that shit and they got all sorts of cash.
@B1663R: Damn straight… Place sounds so scary that if you cant pay, you might get ur ass driven across town and dumped…
Yay Canada!
@snoop-blog:
…and your point is?
What are they supposed to do with them? Waste thousands of dollars a day? I am not advocating doing this here, but seriously, what else can they do?
@MyCokesBiggerThanYours: I don’t think it’s either spend thousands of dollars a day on them, or let them crawl on the street in their soiled nightgown. I think the answer to your question is just about anything other than what they did. Personally, I say yes, you spend thousands of dollars on them a day if that is what they need, and if that is what they need it isn’t a waste, but I realize not everyone shares that view, and I don’t necessarily think that makes a person an ogre if they don’t. But, I would hope that regardless of where a person falls on the political spectrum, he or she would agree that dumping them on the street in the manner this hospital did is simply unacceptable in any civilized society. I don’t think the reaction is because everyone thinks thousands of dollars should be spent. The reaction is to the sheer brutality of the treatment. It’s beyond the pale. There are a variety of ways it could have been handled. At the very least, they could have given the man a change of clothes and a wheelchair. I still don’t think that goes far enough, but at least it shows a modicum of humanity.
@MyCokesBiggerThanYours: Like a said, Nazi started by talking like this, and then killing every homeless and mentally retarded.
I hope no one will waste thousands on you when you’ll be in need of healthcare or anything else you need to get going in a tough situation. Oh! Wait, your life is so much more precious. Or NOT!