A Las Vegas valley senior says he signed up for the Regional Transportation Commission's Paratransit service to get to and from dialysis appointments, but says he is regularly left behind.
"I hate it, I hate dialysis, but I gotta go if I want to live," said Kenny White.
Kenny is in end stage kidney failure. His wife, Carol, still works so he has to take Paratransit to and from dialysis.
"He's getting dialysis treatment to save his life," said Carol.
After about six hours in dialysis treatment, he said the Paratransit bus often leaves him at the clinic if he's not waiting outside. He is 82 years old, mostly blind, and has just finished an intense treatment. Carol says it's unreasonable for them to ask him to stand outside.
"I do my best to take care of him, as best I can," she said. "I don't want to see him go just because the Paratransit people were too busy."
Carol says she reached out to the RTC, but never heard back. So, 13 Action News reached out to the RTC. They sent us the following statement:
Thank you for reaching out to us regarding RTC Paratransit client Kenneth White. We received a call from Mr. White’s wife on Monday, March 27 about an occurrence when Mr. White did not board a scheduled trip. Unfortunately, while our investigation determined that the correct procedures were followed for picking up a client, due to an internal miscommunication we failed to respond to Mrs. White in a timely manner. We have since reached out to Mrs. White directly to apologize as well as address her specific concerns.
Per RTC policy, drivers are instructed to wait five minutes after their arrival and will not leave before those five minutes pass. If a passenger is unable to board the vehicle within five minutes of the vehicle’s arrival, the driver will depart to stay on schedule, as there are other passengers who rely on the shared Paratransit service. RTC policy also states that the driver will come to a passenger’s residential door, but will not enter into lobbies of apartments, professional buildings, retail establishments or commercial properties so as not to leave a vehicle unattended or out of sight for an extended period of time.
Again we apologize for our communication error, and will continue to work directly with the client on future concerns.
Kenny says some drivers will come inside and help him, but he and Carol think it should be policy in cases like this. We asked the RTC about that idea, but they never answered that question.
