Hospital Deluged With Gifts for Injured Trucker : Donations: Daniel Freeman has received thousands of items intended for riot victim Reginald Denny, who was discharged Thursday.

Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital has been flooded with exotic flowers, wind chimes, teddy bears, a hunk of cheese, get-well cards and more than 2,200 checks all earmarked for the hospital’s most famous patient: Reginald O. Denny, the truck driver savagely beaten during the Los Angeles riots.

Well-wishers worldwide sent Denny thousands of dollars in donations as he recuperated at the Inglewood hospital, which discharged him in good condition Thursday morning.

Although hospital officials will not disclose the amount of money sent to Denny, they say it outstrips donations to a Patient Assistance Fund created to assist people lacking health insurance who were treated there for riot-related injuries.

“We’ve received hundreds (of checks) for the Patient Assistance Fund. We’ve received thousands for Mr. Denny,” said Mary Anne Bendixen, vice president of the Daniel Freeman Hospitals Foundation.

And more than checks have been arriving daily at the 403-bed nonprofit Catholic hospital where Denny spent the past two weeks. At least 40 flower bouquets and plants have been sent to Denny, including an exotic arrangement from Hawaii.

One well-wisher sent wind chimes; another sent lottery tickets. Yet another donated several teddy bears with instructions that one should go to Denny’s daughter. The others went to young riot victims.

In all, the hospital has received roughly 12,000 pieces of mail for riot victims and “the great, great majority of it” was for Denny, Bendixen said.

Donations have ranged from two quarters tucked into an envelope to checks for $50 to $100, she said. “Someone sent $10 with a note saying they really had to sacrifice to do it,” she said.

Denny’s mother has asked the foundation not to disclose the amount donated to Denny at this time, Bendixen said. How the money will be spent has not been discussed with Denny, she said.

Daniel Freeman officials say they treated 266 people with riot-related injuries and admitted 47. An estimated 75% of those treated lack private health insurance, although, of the uninsured, more than half are employed, said hospital administrator Peter Bastone.

“That’s the health-care crisis,” he said. “There are a lot of people who are hard-working people, but the employers don’t provide health insurance.”

Foundation employees, overwhelmed with mail, have not yet tallied the money that has come in for the Patient Assistance Fund.

But the foundation has received $25,000 from a Hollywood Park event that included matching gifts from several corporations. And a fund-raiser earlier this week at a West Hollywood comedy club is expected to yield as much as $15,000, most or all of which will help uninsured patients, Bendixen said.

The hospital will lose about $1.5 million this month because of the riots, due to staff costs, lost revenue and uninsured patients, Bastone said.