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Including Inglewood Airport Area • Baldwin Hills • Crenshaw/LA • Ladera Heights VOL. 24, No. 28
July 9, 2015
MLK Hospital Reopens After 8-Year Closure
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t has been eight years since officials shut down the historic King/Drew Hospital in Willowbrook partially because of medical errors that led to patients’ deaths. The new Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital reopened on Tuesday. Although lacking the trauma center made famous by the old hospital, the new 131-bed hospital boasts an expanded outpatient clinic, a new urgent-care psychiatric center and a new public health clinic. The old MLK facility opened in 1972 in response to the need for quality health care in South Los Angeles’ medically underserved community. Its trauma center was considered one of the best in the state. Late entertainment mogul Dick Clark credited the trauma unit for saving his life after a car crash. For several decades, the hospital carried out the spirit of the man from which it was named. It served one of the neediest parts of Los Angeles, admitted and treated patients who did not have medical insurance. Now with the
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Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Hospital
Affordable Care Act, the new hospital will have access to a greater number of patients who have a way to pay for services. Keeping in line with Obamacare, the new facility will focus on preventive care. Financial mismanagement and a series of fatal mistakes caused the hospital to shut down in 2007. Since then, residents have felt the gap created by its absence.
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To attract new patients, MLK will have to rebuild its reputation caused by medical and financial malpractice. Officials have totally revamped the management and infrastructure. So far, 130 physicians, many of whom also work at UCLA medical facilities, have been approved to work at the hospital. Administrators have carefully vetted all hospital staff and don’t expect a return of the
kinds of complaints that gave King/Drew its reputation, an official said. “It really is a new beginning with new people,” said Dr. Oscar Casillas, the hospital’s director of emergency medicine. “The only thing that’s the same is our physical location.” Prior to reopening the new facility, L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas celebrated the official seal of (Continued on page 11)
Come As You Are
On The Inside: • News
Cosby Admits Drugging Women Before Sex
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By Thomas Bunn
ome as you are” is a phrase I’ve come to cherish from the many years I spent in the wooden clad rows of Victory Bible Church, as Pastor Richard Williams delivered messages tailored seemingly for me. It is a phrase that allowed me, at the time, a 15-year old high school sophomore, with no true sense of self, a place (Continued on page 10)
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ill Cosby’s high moralistic views and chastisement about how black parents raise their kids may have been his undoing. Cosby, 78, has been critical about everything from Ebonics to rap music and baggy pants. Bolstered by his squeaky clean image of a black doctor on the hit series, “The Cosby Show,” the actor and comedian has come down hard on parents for what he perceives as a lack of responsibility for their kids.
Bill Cosby When allegations began to surface that Cosby drugged and sexually assaulted several women, some fans could not reconcile his public image with sexual allegations. However, Judge Eduardo Robreno hopes court documents will help bridge the gap between Cosby the TV star and Cosby the man accused of sexual assault. Robreno has unsealed court documents of a deposition in 2005 in which Cosby admits he gave a woman drugs before sex. Judge Robreno said he released the documents be(Continued on page 2)