What's happening to us????

[CatWoman]

:cry:

Cops: Homeless patient 'dumped' on Skid Row

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- A hospital van dropped off a paraplegic man on Skid Row, allegedly leaving him crawling in the street with nothing more than a soiled gown and a broken colostomy bag, police said.

Witnesses who said they saw the incident Thursday wrote down a phone number on the van and took down its license-plate number, which helped detectives connect the vehicle to Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center, the Los Angeles Times reported on its Web site.

Police said the incident was a case of "homeless dumping" and were questioning officials from the hospital.

"I can't think of anything colder than that," said Detective Russ Long. "There was no mission around, no services. It's the worst area of Skid Row."

The case comes three months after the L.A. city attorney's office filed its first indictment for homeless dumping against Kaiser Permanente for an incident earlier last year.


http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/09/homeless.dumping.ap/index.html?eref=yahoo

[tblue]

1. Oh, hell no! I wonder if there's some way we at DU can 'adopt' this poor man. WTH is that?

[demnan]

2. They should be charged with murder

[Robbien]

3. It is not new, it is just getting worse

because there are fewer resources to take care of people. The wealthy must keep increasing their wealth.

[tblue]

7. Their tag line is: 'One World. One Hospital. One Patient at at Time.'

Perish the thought.

[mmonk]

8. All you have to do is provide resources.

The rich will still have their money. It's a matter of choice.

[Robbien]

17. This new budget cuts hospital payments.

and it cuts payments to healthcare industry. Taxcuts for the wealthy are being extended.

So yes it is a choice.

[rebel with a cause]

44. He was costing the tax payers money.

You have seen it posted even here that people are willing to forget helping others when it comes to what they feel is an "unfair drain on their tax money." I was raised to believe that this was what our tax money was for, not for unnecessary wars and tax cuts for the rich and corporations tax loop holes. But no, people will get upset over the idea that people being overweight will cost their insurance rates go up much quicker than they are to get angry at insurance companies for working to stop universal health care and the pharmaceutical companies of blocking negotiations of drug prices. It is just easier to pick on the helpless than it is to tackle the powerful.

Just a rant from an older woman at the time in her life when she thought things would be better, only to find that nothing is the way she thought they would be. A bad taste in my mouth from eating the dust of stampeding run away human integrity.

[DRoseDARs]

4. Isn't this like the fifth time this sort of thing has hit the news?

What does it take for the indictment to stick and get the practice to stop? :shrug:

[Robbien]

16. It won't stop. Where are hospitals supposed to put the sick & homeless?

It really is getting bad.

[Porcupine]

29. City Hall? A Congressmans office? The state capitol? nt.

.

[Esra Star]

30. Forget the indictment, first of all enough people have to care.

Then a national system of caring can take root.
How many homeless in the US today?

[MADem]

5. This has been going on for a while. I read reports of this last year, too NT

[atreides1]

6. Plain, simple greed

Making a buck has become more important then doing what is right!!!.

But what can one expect from a society that claims to be one thing and then does exactly what it accuses others of doing.

It is truly sad.

[cdnwannabe]

9. I read awhile back that the police in L.A.'s surrounding areas....

dump homeless in skid row as well. Karma will be a great big bitch for the people who do this!

[closeupready]

10. I can just hear the reich-wingers now: "Well, if he had taken some personal responsibility,"

maybe he wouldn't be in that situation."

:mad:

[proud patriot]

11. Outrageous

:grr:

[flyarm]

12. this has been happening for a long time in LA..and has been reported by many..

seems cnn is just catching up??

it has been filmed..and it has been in the LA times numerous times..even the cops took pix of it!!

and yet cnn just caught onto it??

guess they need a story beside Nicole Smith to take americans minds off the crap that is seeping out of congress in the bucket loads about this administration...

i expect cnn and the other msm..will be bringing out as many stories that the rest of us have known for years..for deflection of the crime family in our government!!

yes it is great it is seeing the light of day..but they are a day late and a dollar short!!

and we are now to believe they care about news?????????

ahhh nooo...

fly

[CrownPrinceBandar]

13. Its a sick society that allows this type of sh*t..........

when profit margin trumps human compassion, I hold out little hope for our future.

[twilight_sailing]

14. Who are we?

What are we?

[patrice]

15. Whoever runs that hospital and the insurance companies WILL

get their bonuses anyway. I am absolutely certain that that guy has done stuff that resulted in his present condition. No worries, Amerika, our way of life thrives!!

[flyarm]

18. read this story ..about a hospital in Redding calif formerly owned by

TENET HEALTH CARE OF TEXAS...

"CORONARY" BY STEPHEN KLAIDMAN..NOW AVAIL AT BARNES AND NOBLE..

my mother in law just died of malpractice in calif..

and the sorry thing is..you can not get a lawyer to take the case when the senior citizen is over 65 ..

i know, we have been trying to get a lawyer to take the case for over a month now..

and the docs who tried to save her ..have even promised to testify !!

America..the land that doesn't give a rats ass about our senior citizens!!

fly

[blues90]

19. This is nothing less than horrifing

I have heard alot about this in the past few years . It seems to be the begining of even more people left behind by society in these bush days .

It really makes one ashamed to be living in this country and I live in LA right near these hospitals . They used to be good places and it is difficult to imagine that anyone told or hired to drive anyone and just dump them on the street would be able to do this .

If it were me I would have taken the person to the police and report the names of those who told me to do this horrid act . I guess there are all sorts of people who are willing to turn their backs and drive off without conscience .

All of these horrors within the US and still we are not all out in the streets shutting down all the cities but this will never happen .

At this point they should issue each human on their way out with no hope left a pill so they have the choice whether to continue on or not .

I really don't know what other option there exists as sad and sick as this sounds .

When I was a kid in the 50's the only people in the streets were called hobo's and seemed to make the choice of this sort of life style but homeless by the thousands did not seem to exist back then .

I really worry just where we are headed and fear if anyone runs out of luck for whatever reason their fate is almost worse than death .

[bahrbearian]

20. Why don't they take them all to Ronalds Rayguns or Arnolds houses.

[manic expression]

21. That's routine

The pigs do it all the time.

[Cobalt Violet]

22. A paraplegic man crawling in his hospital gown,,,,

This is sadistic. We have become a very sadistic, uncaring society. Everything is someones else's problem.
This has been going on for a while. I didn't know they did it to paraplegics to. What next quadriplegics? How bad does it have to get?

[ThomCat]

32. If you're poor you cost them money

and God knows that money comes before anything else. So out he goes on to the street.

This was attempted murder, and it should be prosecuted as such. If people hadn't come to this guy's aid, a paraplegic, with no clothes and no wheelchair, a broken colostomy bag and no medical assistance, how long could anyone expect him to reasonably surive on the street alone?
:grr:

[burythehatchet]

23. If only the man had gotten a tax cut so he could buy insurance.

[file83]

54. LOL - Bush is an a**hole

Good point.

[Kixel]

24. This is so disturbing

Why can't people understand that we need universal health care?

[Katherine Brengle]

25. I'm always amazed at the lack of basic human decency in people...

when I read the news.

[CrazyOrangeCat]

26. k&r

"whatsoever you do to the least of these . . . ."

[sinkingfeeling]

27. We're becoming a nation of a single religion ... the dollar!

[smoogatz]

28. Time to do away with "for profit" hospitals. Time for universal health care.

I mean, come on. What more proof do we need that the entire system is broken?

[area51]

41. "What more proof do we need that the entire system is broken?"

Yes! The republinazi party is truly the pro-death party. No $$$? Too bad, go somewhere & die, say members of the republinazi party.

The democratic party needs to be the pro-life party -- that is, pro single-payer, universal healthcare, as any other position is pro-death.

As smoogatz said, we need single-payer, universal healthcare, and we need to start the transition NOW.

[butterfly77]

31. I have been asking this in my posts and no one seems to think...

that its a problem but, if you ask me it's bush policies. Many now feel that its ok to not give a damn...

[CatWoman]

39. I agree with you, Butterfly

:cry:

[AspenRose]

33. Oh, my God.

!

[zippy890]

34. "homeless dumping"?!!!

like it happens a lot?

Indeed Catwoman, what have we become that this happens.

If you you are poor and disabled you are not considered human
anymore. You don't exist please go away and leave everyone alone.
and don't expect anything cuz you won't get anything. the poor and disabled
aren't even treated with the minimum of dignity that every person should be given.

and we are supposedly a "Christian nation"?

makes me sick and outraged.

[roguevalley]

35. Oh, catwoman. I'm crying. My daddy was helpless the last two years

of his life. I only see my daddy when I think of this man. I am crying and crying, this poor, poor, helpless man. I wish I was going to be on their jury.

[kestrel91316]

36. This is commonplace in LA. They were supposed to be

aggressively prosecuting those who do it, but I see that enforcement has once again become "lax". To put it mildly.

[Cleita]

37. This isn't anything new.

The cops in Los Angeles County have been infamous for taking homeless and dumping them across the border line in the next city. One homeless guy back when I lived in Santa Monica was actually dumped from city line to city line and when he sobered up found himself in Pomona, which I think is about forty miles away. But dumping the sick is a new level of callousness. That's awful.

[tom_paine]

38. The ONLY part of "Trickle-Down" that works is...

...the "trickle-down" immorality, cruelty, and consciencelessness that comes from being ruled by Evil People, like the Bush Family.

[terip64]

40. kick

[OHdem10]

42. Didn"t cha know----No one is owed anything

No one is entitled to anything as Russert often
blurts out. "Teach your children they are not entitled."

Ministers even say this from the pulpit .

I suppose it is that old Republican maxim learned
from an infamous German. Repeat something often enough
and the people will believe it is true.

More than one way to get rid of all these social programs and
make "this the government so small we can flush it down the
bathtub drain."

If you believe the homeless are there because they are shiftless,
lazy, drug addicted, acoholic, --they have no personal responsiblity;
it stands to reason you can dump ahomeless person. If he is not owed
anything, or entitled to anything--dumping him is no big deal.

Conservatism is permeating the air--huh.

[Warren DeMontague]

43. Yeah, I've heard a few of these stories over the past year, I think.

Appalling.

[RevolutionStartsNow]

45. My 11 year old heard this story today...

At his afterschool program, which is run by these incredibly compassionate people who make sure the kids (most from well-off families) learn about the world.

They meditate for people when they are sick, or when one kid's family loses a relative, or a pet, or anytime they feel a need to send good thoughts to someone in need.

He said today after they heard the story they meditated not only for the poor man who was left in the street, but also for the people driving the van and whoever made the decision to dump that man.

How do you explain to an 11 year old that human beings can be so cruel and heartless?

[Toucano]

46. The dollar is more important than anything else.

These are, not to be TOO much of a rapturist, the end of days for the United States of America.

[The_Casual_Observer]

47. "The richest most powerful country in the world!"

Bullshit.

[OneBlueSky]

48. sometimes, you're just left speechless . . . n/t

.

[W in Arabia]

49. Jesus. What about the profits this man could have digressed?

These sort of stories make me sick.

The medical industry in America has turned into...

an industry.

and a nasty-assed one at that.

[VenusRising]

50. This is the first time I've ever heard of this.

It makes me feel sick. I can't imagine doing something more cruel and inhumane to someone who can't even get around by themselves. He was crawling around in a soiled hospital gown! What on earth is happening to humanity? I can't imagine how people in the health services could be so heartless despite having to do it for the dollar. No amount of money could ever get me to do something that horrible. Wow. Just. Wow.

:wow:

[Disturbed]

51. The Bush Admin. is cuting all Social Programs.

This has been going on for a long time and will get worse until Americans demand better.

[VenusRising]

52. I know about the cutting of social programs

but I guess my mind never let me think something this horrible could happen. Although, it shouldn't surprise me. I lived in Texas under * when he cut the Workman's Comp program. I got hurt on the job and had to prove my injury just to get treated. Since it was a closed-head injury it was difficult and left me worse than when I was originally hurt. There were a lot of stories about people committing suicide because they couldn't get the help they needed. I was lucky to have a very supportive husband. I survived. Some didn't.

[opihimoimoi]

53. If ya can't pay...ya can't stay

[file83]

55. Gotta love the compassion of those Presbyterians!!!

I'm sure Jesus would be proud.

[bobbolink]

56. Here's what you/we can do-----

Look for threads on the US Budget, often posted by Sapphire Blue, and respond by calling and writing.
Last year, the budget cut billions from Medicaid. No wonder people are being turned out of hospitals! Let's organize pressure on our new majority to overturn those Medicaid cuts.

Call your local reps, and tell them treatment of this sort with homeless people is NOT acceptable, and ask your friends to do the same. It's up to US to put a stop to all this!

Where are the huge rallies and demonstrations about poverty? It's not seen as important, so people are abandoned in our names. WE are "the people".