Some Life Support Removed : Boy Still in Coma 1 Month After Ordeal in Channel

A month after he was swept two miles down the Pacoima Wash flood control channel, 7-year-old German Gonzalez was still in a coma in Childrens Hospital on Wednesday. Doctors say it is uncertain he will ever regain consciousness.

German fell into the concrete-lined wash while playing on the bank Feb. 12 and was found floating unconscious.

“Only God knows” if he will recover, his father, Perfecto Gonzalez, said. “The worry is that there will be brain damage.”

Doctors say they cannot tell if German will survive and, if so, if he will have permanent brain damage, said hospital spokeswoman Edith Anderson.

Life-Support Machines

Gonzalez said the family consented to the removal of some life-support machines in early March after doctors advised them that “it would be better not to prolong the agony, that nothing more could be done” with the aid of the machines in any case.

Physicians said he might die within minutes or continue breathing on his own, Gonzalez said, “and it is 10 days later and he is still breathing.”

Gonzalez of Los Angeles sells fabric at swap meets, he said. The family was at a swap meet near the San Fernando Airport when German and two other children managed to get over a protective fence and began playing beside the center channel of the wash, using sticks as toy boats.

Could Not Escape

German fell in and was swept away. Although the channel is only 12 to 18 inches deep, he could not escape. The cement banks are slippery with moss and the current was moving about 15 m.p.h., according to the county Department of Public Works.

His father and bystanders from the swap meet raced frantically along the bank but could not catch him. The current carried him under the intersection of Interstate 5 and the California 118, and he washed up in a pool near Devonshire Street, where a police officer and a DPW maintenance worker waded into the water and found him floating face down.