Hospital sued in alleged dumping of patient

Civil rights attorneys today sued Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in connection with the dumping of a paraplegic man on skid row last year.

The incident – captured on videotape by a security camera at a nearby homeless shelter – sparked national outrage after television images showed the man crawling in the gutter in a soiled hospital gown while dragging a colostomy bag. Witnesses told The Times that the van driver ignored their pleas to stop.

The suit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of Gabino Olvera, 41, 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.”

“When you tell the average person this they are completely shocked that a hospital would treat a human being in this way,” said Hernan D. Vera, an attorney at Public Counsel and one of the plaintiff’s lawyers. “Mr. Olvera is personally committed to seeing the hospital shape up and do the right thing by changing it’s discharge policy toward the homeless.”

Olvera was taken to Hollywood Presbyterian after an automobile accident, according to the complaint. Once there, the suit alleges hospital officials failed to diagnose and treat him for a urinary tract infection or take into account apparent signs of mental illness.

After several hours at the hospital, Olvera was taken by ambulance about 12:30 a.m. to the Midnight Mission in the skid row area of downtown Los Angeles.

The mission staff noted Olvera did not have a wheelchair and they did not have the facilities to deal with someone in his condition, the suit alleges

Olvera was brought back to Hollywood Presbyterian and placed in a wheelchair in a corner of the waiting room, where he sat unattended for eight hours with no food or water, the suit alleges.

“During this time, Mr. Olvera “continued to exhibit signs of mental instability, which were ignored by the hospital,” Vera said.

The next morning, Olvera was placed in a van and driven to skid row.

There, Olvera was told to get out, forcing him to drag himself toward the curb with a bag of his possessions clenched in his teeth, the suit alleges. When a crowd began to gather demanding help for the man, the driver cursed him, saying he had soiled her van, according to police and witness accounts of the incidents, according to the suit.

The driver then applied makeup and perfume and drove off, nearly hitting Olvera, the suit said

“They treated him like refuse at the hospital, and they treated him like refuse when they dumped him in the gutter,” said Mark D. Rosenbaum, who is representing Olvera along with attorney Steven Archer.

An attorney for Hollywood Presbyterian could not be reached for comment.

Today’s suit is the latest in mounting legal troubles for Hollywood Presbyterian related to homeless dumping

Last June, city prosecutors filed civil complaints accusing the Los Feliz-based hospital and Methodist Hospital in Arcadia of alleged patient dumping – two by each hospital – over a 14-month period.

City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo is trying to use a state law dealing with unfair business practices, which has been used to prosecute alleged slumlords and which allows a corporation to be sued for unscrupulous behavior, against the hospitals.

andrew.blankstein@latimes.com