Orphaned Brothers Face New Challenges

In a working-class neighborhood on the outskirts of town, Daniel and Justin Forrest are trying to rebuild their lives.

The two brothers, 9 and 10, captured the hearts of thousands of Southern Californians three months ago, when they and their older brother, Shem, were injured and orphaned in a Pomona car crash on their way to their grandmother’s funeral.

After Pomona firefighters broadcast an appeal for help, more than $105,000 in donations poured in. Strangers offered to take the boys, whose family had lived in Chino, into their homes. They also received thousands of letters of sympathy and support.

The money is being placed in a trust to help the boys, although the aunt and the uncle now caring for the two children do not yet have access to the money.

But the flood of donations apparently prompted Medi-Cal officials to revoke the children’s government support a month ago, which left them in limbo for a time, without either health insurance or access to the donations to pay medical bills.

Their aunt, Sara Lucas, had to navigate a bureaucratic maze to arrange for the two younger boys to be added to her company health insurance policy. That medical coverage began this month, after they spent nearly six weeks without health insurance, forcing them to postpone needed medical care.

In the meantime, in the privacy of their aunt’s modest home here, Daniel and Justin are left to cope with the physical and emotional scars that remain. Their 18-year-old brother is living with a friend in Chino.

Lucas and her husband, Dennis, who have a young son and daughter of their own, say they are happy to be helping their nephews. They were appointed the children’s legal guardians shortly after the accident. But they acknowledge that it has not been easy having their family grow by 50% overnight.

In addition to arranging health coverage, the Lucases have been struggling to make ends meet on Sara’s $505-a week salary as a telephone operator. Dennis, a carpenter and painter, stays home to care for Justin, who is housebound in a body cast.

“I’m just going day to day,” said Sara Lucas, the younger sister of the boys’ father, Fred Forrest. “All I can do is try my best to give them what I can and make them happy.”

For the boys, the healing is slow. Justin, with a broken femur, is likely to remain in the body cast at least until the end of January. His wheelchair is too wide to roll through the hallway to the bedrooms, so he sleeps on a bed in the dining room. A school district tutor comes for several hours each week.

Daniel, who had less serious injuries, had a leg cast until Dec. 7. The boy, a fourth-grader at a nearby elementary school, now walks and runs with a limp, but he is getting physical therapy once a week.

At first he “wasn’t real comfortable” with the way his life had changed or with his new surroundings, Dennis Lucas said. “But with time, he’s accepting it.”

But Sara Lucas said she still worries about the emotional scars both young boys carry from the fatal crash, which occurred Sept. 28 as Fred, 38, and Janet Forrest, 40, and their three children were driving to the funeral of Fred Forrest’s mother. Their car was stopped for a signal on the Corona Expressway at the Pomona Freeway when it was struck by an oncoming van.

The two adults were killed instantly. The two younger boys were trapped in the wreckage for 45 minutes while firefighters worked to free them.

Sara Lucas said her nephews do not talk much about the ordeal. Daniel, a good-natured boy with a mischievous grin and a penchant for practical jokes, sometimes has spells of depression, she said. Justin, who was already a withdrawn child, rarely mentions his parents, or the trauma of what happened.

“I haven’t seen them cry about it enough,” she said. “Once in a while they will bring something up. I think they should talk about it.”

Almost since they arrived, Sara Lucas said, she has wanted to get the boys some help with coping. But there was the question of insurance. Before the accident, she said, Daniel and Justin received Medi-Cal because their parents could not afford other coverage. Fred Forrest worked as a window washer and security guard.

The medical bills immediately after the accident were paid by Medi-Cal. But their new Medi-Cal cards did not arrive in November. Sara Lucas said she spoke to a Kern County caseworker to get the coverage reinstated, but was unsuccessful. She believes Medi-Cal was cut off because of the donations.

“They were acting like the boys may not be eligible for Medi-Cal because they have the fund,” she said.

Pat Wolff, community relations officer of the San Bernardino County Department of Public Social Services, said she could not comment on specifics of the case.

However, she said, Medi-Cal regulations do consider trust fund money as income, which could have affected the boys’ eligibility. To be eligible for Medi-Cal benefits, a family of three can have no more than $3,150 in assets, Wolff said.

Now that the boys are covered by Sara Lucas’ company health plan, Wolff said she has made arrangements for them to begin counseling.

The Lucases have other worries, including a suddenly strained family budget that includes more food and clothing.

So far the Lucas family has not had access to the money, which was collected by the Pomona Fire Department. But Pasadena attorney David Bunn said he is drawing up a trust that will allow the boys’ grandfather, James Forrest, to draw on the money for the boys’ support, health and education.

Sara Lucas said she hopes that the family will be able to get by on its earnings and on Social Security payments that the boys are entitled to receive. Although she said she would seek access to the trust money in an emergency, she would rather have it held for the boys to use when they are older.