LA Medical Center negligent for ignoring mentally challenged man. Los Angles, California After waiting hours for attention and care in the City of Angels Medical Center of downtown Los Angles, a 76-year-old man walked out of the crowded waiting room and has not been seen for eight days. Lawrence Garcia has the mental capacity of a 6-year-old and is a diabetic undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. Lawrence’s brother, Leo Garcia, is his Guardian ad Litem, and has recently filed a negligence and abuse claim against the medical center.
In the suit, Leo Garcia vs. Intercare Health Systems, Inc, (a California Corporation which owns the City of Angels Medical Center) Garcia claims that it was the hospitals responsibility not to leave the old man unattended, and should have either supervised him until his ride came to pick him up, giving over care from one to another. The suit also charges the hospital with elder abuse for their lack of following Federal and State laws and regulations. The staff at the City of Angels was not adequately trained to work with mentally challenged patients. You wouldn’t leave a six-year-old unattended in a busy waiting room, would you?
Yet it is odd that when the medical center was questioned, medical officials claimed that it was not their duty to watch him or maintain a certain level of care; but this is false. Lawrence was not able to care for himself and until he was placed into the care of his guardian, they should not have dismissed of him. The essentially left him to decide on his own what to do. And although he may appear to have the same mental capacity as a normal adult, he does not. Simple lack of communication has comprised this mans safety, and now he wanders alone.
