WHAT HEELS!: Heartless Hospitals
Civil rights lawyers filed a lawsuit against Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of Gabino Olvera, 41, a homeless paraplegic who was driven to the skid row section of downtown Los Angeles and dumped in the gutter. Reports the Los Angeles Times:
The incident sparked national outrage after The Times reported that the man crawled in the gutter in a soiled hospital gown while dragging a colostomy bag. Witnesses told The Times that the van driver, Finece Mathis, ignored their pleas to stop.
The suit was and seeks unspecified punitive and compensatory damages against the hospital for alleged elder abuse, negligence and infliction of emotional distress.
It also asks the court for an injunction that would bar the hospital and the van company, Empire Transportation Inc., from engaging in future cases of "homeless dumping."
Prosecutors previously had filed civil complaints against Hollywood Presbyterian and Methodist Hospital alleging patient dumping.
The last time I was unfortunate enough to require hospital care, I stayed for a few hours and the hospital ran some routine tests. The bill ran into the thousands although the tests conducted were simple $75 clinical sample tests.
Private hospitals thrive on massive revenue, city subsidies and tax advantages. How often after all do you see a hospital having a "going out of business" sale? What would a used bed pad be worth anyway?
Hospitals who thrive on it's monopoly of the sick while receiving perks and incentives from public sources should be banned from releasing a patient into a potentially harmful environment that's incompatible with his/her ailments.
The fact that the hospital should be sued in order to compel the hospital into civilized health practices is an outrage. Our government has seen fit to regulate everything else in hospital operations, yet the user of those operations is beholden to the hospitals option of securing their welfare?
Perhaps a private hospital can't be forced to provide treatment, but it should certainly be required to insure that it doesn't release patients into an environment that is likely to make the condition(s) worse.
If it's true that the hospital made a commitment to change their practice and still has not, then I would expect (and hope) that the hospital will be sued senseless to established a precedent in this case that equals the apathy it has shown towards it's customers (patients). We'll be watching this case to see what the legal outcome is.
Danny Vice
The Weekly Vice
http://weeklyviceblogspot.com
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