BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — A 75-year-old man is recovering after he and his family say a medical transport service left him outside his home—alone in the heat. “I didn’t know I was out there so long, but I got so hot I was trying to get out of the sun.” Johnnie Smith said.
Johnnie Smith is now hospitalized after his family says Genesis Non-Emergency Medical Transport dropped him off, but did not make sure he got back inside safely. Smith, who uses a wheelchair and was receiving dialysis, says he was left on his porch in nearly 90-degree weather after receiving treatment.
I asked him if they usually ask if you have your keys, and this time they didn’t?” Smith said, “No… she just drove off.”
I then asked, “Did you ask to be left outside?”
Smith said, “No ma’am, I never asked to be left outside.”
Smith’s caregiver Tina Jackson says when she arrived at her usual time on Saturday, March 21st, she found him in distress and immediately called 911 and the transportation service. “Johnnie was lying there. His pants were connected either to this part of the chair or this part—I can’t remember, there was so much going on. They were all the way down between his knee and his ankle. He had no shirt on; his shirt was on the chair. He was on his side, and his head was facing the grass area.”
Johnnie and his family say he was left outside for more than an hour—without a phone or keys—and at some point ended up on hot concrete. They say he suffered heat stroke and severe burns and is now being treated in the hospital.
Non-emergency medical transport services in California are regulated by multiple agencies, including the Department of Health Care Services and the California Public Utilities Commission.
Genesis Non-Emergency Medical Transport has not responded to repeated requests for comment. We have been reaching out to them for the past week.
As for Johnnie, he is working on healing day by day.
Johnnie, his family, and his caregiver say they hope this serves as a warning—check on your loved ones, know who’s transporting them, and make sure they’re never left alone.
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