Man Cleared of Abuse Donates Girl’s Organs

A grief-stricken Los Angeles man, mistakenly accused of child abuse earlier this week, gave doctors permission on Friday to disconnect his brain-dead 15-month-old daughter from life-support systems and to make her heart and other organs available for transplantation.

The father was charged after he brought the infant to a downtown hospital for treatment of an accidental drug overdose.

“He’s an unfortunate individual who’s had a helluva week,” said Deputy County Counsel Tom Tyrrell, who recommended that charges against the man be dropped. “He’s been a victim of circumstances.”

Police Custody

Arrangements were being made late Friday for the man’s release from custody, where he was still being held on several outstanding warrants for minor offenses, such as traffic violations. By then, he was no longer a criminal child-abuse suspect.

Also Friday, a county petition seeking custody of the child was dismissed by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Marcus Tucker.

The father, a recent widower whose name was withheld by authorities, then met privately with his child’s physician and his attorney and consented to the disconnection and organ donation.

Neither the father nor his attorney was available for comment Friday. It was not known when the infant would be disconnected from the respirator or what would become of her organs.

The tragic story began unfolding Sunday, when the father brought his ailing child to California Medical Center. The man told physicians that he believed the girl had ingested a small amount of his Thorazine, a powerful drug used to treat schizophrenia and other mental disorders, that she had taken from a dresser drawer.

Slipped Into Coma

At the hospital, the feverish, drowsy child slipped into a coma and then suffered cardiac arrest. Resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful, and tests revealed a blood clot on her brain.

Although a spinal fluid test ruled out the likelihood that the child had been beaten, the hospital filed a suspected-abuse report, because of what hospital officials regarded as suspicious circumstances, including the father’s history of mental problems.

The action led to a Dependency Court petition filed by the county Department of Children’s Services seeking custody of the girl. It also led to a police investigation that resulted in the father’s arrest.

However, county officials who later evaluated the case concluded that there was no reason to prosecute the father criminally or to seek court jurisdiction over the child.

Meanwhile, tests showed that the child had no brain-wave activity and no blood circulating in her brain.

The hospital contacted Loma Linda University Medical Center where, for the past two months, surgeons have been awaiting healthy hearts to become available for transplantation into a 2-month-old and a 2-year-old.

According to a brief statement issued by Peter E. Makowski, California Medical Center-Los Angeles vice president, the father was contacted on Friday through his attorney and asked for permission to remove his daughter from life-support systems and to allow her organs to be donated for transplant. He agreed.

Declined to Say

Loma Linda public affairs officer Dick Schaefer declined to say whether the center expects to receive the 15-month-old girl’s heart.

He said Loma Linda had been requesting three hearts until last week, when one infant died. The infant suffered from the same condition that prompted a controversial and unsuccessful baboon heart transplant into an infant known as Baby Fae in 1984.