Paraplegic sues hospital for patient dump

LOS ANGELES, Jan. 17 (UPI) -- Lawyers filed suit Thursday on behalf of a paraplegic who was left on the street in Los Angeles' skid row still dressed in a hospital gown.

The law suit seeks damages on behalf of Gabino Olvera, 47, claiming elder abuse, negligence and emotional distress, the Los Angeles Times reported. Lawyers also asked Los Angeles District Court to bar the hospital and Empire Transportation Co. from "homeless dumping."

A number of Los Angeles hospitals have been involved in discharging indigent patients by dropping them off at homeless shelters. But Olvera's case became a national scandal because a security camera at a shelter caught him crawling in the gutter with a colostomy bag.

The suit says that Olvera was taken to the Midnight Mission in the middle of the night and then returned to the hospital. He was sent back to skid row the next day and dropped off, the newspaper reported.

"They treated him like refuse at the hospital, and they treated him like refuse when they dumped him in the gutter," said Mark Rosenbaum, one of Olvera's lawyers.