Hospital van spotted dumping paraplegic on LA's skid row

A Los Angeles 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 yesterday 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 Centre, the Los Angeles Times reported.

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 LA city attorney’s office filed its first indictment for homeless dumping against Kaiser Permanente for an incident earlier last year.

In that case, a 63-year-old patient from the hospital’s Bellflower medical centre was videotaped wandering the streets of Skid Row in a hospital gown and socks.