New Skid Row Dumping Scandal!

After all the media attention about hospitals dumping sick and helpless patients on the sidewalks of Skid Row, you'd think if they were to continue such activity - they would at least be discrete about it.

But, no. A van used by Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital dumped a paraplegic - apparently after taking his wheel chair from him - on the streets of Skid Row - in broad day light.

Paraplegic allegedly 'dumped' on skid row
L.A. police say man was dropped off in front of dozens of witnesses by van linked to Hollywood Presbyterian hospital.
By Andrew Blankstein and Richard Winton
Times Staff Writers

10:14 PM PST, February 8, 2007

A paraplegic man wearing a soiled hospital gown and a broken colostomy bag was found crawling in a gutter in skid row in Los Angeles on Thursday after allegedly being dumped in the street by a Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center van, police said.

The incident, witnessed by more than two dozen people, was described by police as a particularly outrageous case of "homeless dumping" that has plagued the downtown area.

"I can't think of anything colder than that," said LAPD Det. Russ Long, who called the case the most egregious of its kind that he has seen in his career. "There was no mission around, no services. It's the worst area of skid row."

Los Angeles Police Department detectives said they connected the van to Hollywood Presbyterian after witnesses wrote down a phone number on the van and took down its license-plate number.

They are questioning officials from the hospital, which the LAPD had accused in an earlier dumping case that is now under investigation.

Witnesses shouted at the female driver of the van, "Where's his wheelchair, where's his walker?"

Gary Lett, an employee at Gladys Park, near where the incident occurred, said the woman driving the van didn't reply, but proceeded to apply makeup and perfume before driving off...

Now if this can still happen in the middle of the day in front of witnesses, guess what still happens under the cover of night on deserted streets of Skid Row.