Girl Suffered Brain Damage From Lion

Laura Michele Small, the El Toro girl who was mauled by a mountain lion last Sunday, suffered brain damage in the attack and is partially paralyzed but may recover some of her lost motor ability, doctors said Tuesday.

She was taken off a respirator Tuesday afternoon, and doctors say her chances of surviving are good.

The 5-year-old, in serious but stable condition at Mission Community Hospital in Mission Viejo, is still in danger of losing her deeply lacerated right eye, according to her father, Donald Small.

“The main danger for the next couple of weeks is infection,” said Dr. Sylvain Palmer, the neurosurgeon who helped repair Laura’s wounds in a 12-hour operation Sunday night. “She is receiving a lot of antibiotics and we just have to allow her time to recuperate.”

Laura’s mother, Susan Mattern-Small, said the girl “drifts in and out of consciousness and is heavily sedated. She can’t speak, but she responds by squeezing your hand. She is getting better.”

Laura was attacked while she was hiking with her family in Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park near San Juan Capistrano. The lion grabbed the girl’s head in its jaws and dragged her into the brush before a man who heard cries for help drove the animal away by clubbing it with a branch.

“Every time I close my eyes I see the whole thing over again,” said Laura’s mother. “I thought she was dead.”

In addition to numerous cuts on her face and scalp, Laura suffered multiple small skull fractures. The left side of her brain was damaged, Palmer said. The right side of her body is paralyzed, “but a lot of that could get better” with natural healing, he said, adding that 5 year-olds have good recuperative ability.

Laura will require surgery to replace the missing parts of her skull, Palmer said, but extensive plastic surgery on her face may not be necessary because most of the wounds are above the hairline. “She’s already had 12 hours of surgery, and most of the (facial) wounds will probably heal,” Palmer said.

It is still too early to determine the full extent of her injuries or to predict how long rehabilitation might take, he said.

Physical Therapy to Come

“She’s going to need a considerable amount of physical therapy,” said Laura’s father, who had spent two sleepless nights at the hospital. He said the shock of the event still had not worn off. “We spent most of yesterday crying. It’s just unbelievable--you try to protect your kids against everything that can possibly happen. . . . “

Small said his insurance would cover most of Laura’s medical expenses, but a trust fund for her rehabilitation has been set up in her name at Mercury Savings, 23021 Lake Center Drive, El Toro, 92630.

Veterinarians and wildlife biologists have not determined why the mountain lion attacked the girl. Rabies tests of the animal, shot to death by trackers Monday, were negative, said the county veterinarian, Dr. Nila Kelly.

Those tests were performed Tuesday at the Orange County Animal Shelter. Later Tuesday, the carcass was taken to the Los Angeles County veterinary diagnostic laboratory in Downey for a preliminary autopsy, Kelly said.

“We found nothing conclusive,” Kelly said. “Even though he looked thin from the outside (the animal weighed about 65 pounds), he appeared to have the normal amount of fat inside for a young male.

“We found nothing that could explain his actions.”

She said a complete autopsy will be performed during the next three weeks.

Lion Seen as Wild

Pat Moore, spokesman for the state Department of Fish and Game, reported that department biologists and wardens said the lion “didn’t appear to have ever been a pet,” as was suggested Monday by animal authority Greg Hickman, vice president of the Alliance of Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education, a coalition of animal welfare groups in 10 Southern California counties.

Hickman had theorized the cat might have been raised in captivity and set free when it grew too large to handle. This, he said, could account for the fact it showed little fear of humans and that it had never developed the ability to hunt for its natural prey in the wild.

But Moore disagreed.

“It had never been de-clawed, its teeth were in good shape, indicating it had never been fed soft foods, and there was no evidence that it had ever worn a collar or leash,” he said.

Moore said the hunting of mountain lions in California was banned in 1971, except in cases where individual animals were known to be raiding cattle and sheep herds.

He said there are about 20 to 25 mountain lions in the Santa Ana Mountains of Orange County, but there are no accurate figures for the population statewide. The statewide count “obviously has increased” since the 1971 moratorium on hunting, he said, and the state is taking steps to allow hunting to resume.

“Our department has asked for a one-year delay in this matter so that more studies can be made on population and distribution of the cats and methods by which the hunting law can be administrated by the DFG (Department of Fish and Game),” he said.