By David de Sola
Senior Investigative Correspondent
The Southern California Inquisitor

Surveillance footage shows paramedics unsuccessfully attempting to drop off a paraplegic patient at the Midnight Mission. A few hours later, a van dropped off the patient in the Gladys Park area of Skid Row. Video: Midnight Mission
The Midnight Mission, located in the heart of Skid Row in Los Angeles, where paramedics attempted to drop off a paraplegic patient in the middle of the night. Photo: The Southern California Inquisitor

LOS ANGELES -- In the middle of a February night, two paramedics from Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center arrived at the Midnight Mission. They were bringing a homeless paraplegic patient on a stretcher to leave at the shelter. When administrators refused to take him in because they didn't have room, the patient was loaded into the ambulance and taken back to Hollywood Presbyterian.

The next day, the patient was taken to the Gladys Park area of Skid Row by a van contracted by the hospital. What happened shocked and angered nearly a dozen witnesses, many of whom are homeless and have become accustomed to the harsh realities of life on Skid Row.

"He was placed in the van and taken down to Skid Row where he was by all accounts essentially ejected from the van in front of the park and crawled away," Jeffrey Isaacs of the Los Angeles City Attorney's office said.

"He was in a hospital gown, had a cathode attached to him, and was essentially dragging his belongings which were in a bag clenched in his teeth. And the people who were in the park, most of whom are homeless, even they who have pretty much seen it all apparently were shocked by that and called 911."

Union Rescue Mission president Andy Bales elaborated on the incident. "[The witnesses] were so filled with outrage about the treatment of this patient that they stepped forward and they shared that not only did the man have to fling himself out of the van onto the street but that the driver was only concerned that her van seat had been soiled and she was applying makeup and perfume as she drove off and left the guy laying in the street."

Hollywood Presbyterian released a statement about the incident saying, "We find this situation extremely troubling and regrettable and are committed to doing everything within our power to prevent anything of this sort from happening again."

The Los Angeles City Attorney's Office is investigating 55 reports of alleged incidents where hospitals dumped homeless patients. Isaacs, who is the chief prosecutor for the city of Los Angeles and supervises a unit of 300 prosecutors, says that several hospitals in Los Angeles County are the focus of the probe, but declined to identify any of them.

Second high-profile incident in less than a year

In March of 2006, Bales was standing outside the Union Rescue Mission waiting for a bus carrying students to return. While he was waiting, something unusual caught his attention.

"I noticed a cab do a U-turn, pull up about six feet away from the curb and a little lady stepped out of the back seat of the cab in a hospital night gown with slippers and started walking the wrong way away from the mission down the street about six feet from the curb walking onto the meanest streets in the United States," Bales said.

The woman, wearing nothing but a hospital gown and socks and was suffering from dementia, was later identified as 63-year-old Carol Reyes of Gardena, Calif. Police later discovered that she had been a patient at the Kaiser Permanente hospital in Bellflower, Calif.

Bales was not the only witness to the event. A surveillance camera set up above the mission's doors captured the entire episode, which drew citywide and national attention. There are no definitive numbers on how many patients have been dumped because there were no documented cases until the Reyes incident, but activists and relief workers in Skid Row say it has been happening for years.

The Los Angeles City Attorney's office has filed criminal charges and a civil action against Kaiser Permanente over the Reyes incident. The arraignment is scheduled for March 19.