Baby’s Death Prompts Call for Examination of Private Clinics

Incensed by the death of a Santa Ana toddler who had been treated by an apparently unlicensed doctor, a leader in Orange County’s Latino community called Tuesday for an investigation into private clinics that cater to the immigrant population.

“We must have a mechanism by which these very critically important so-called clinics are checked into,” said Amin David, president of Los Amigos of Orange County. “Isn’t there a mechanism in the city of Santa Ana?”

In the days since 13-month-old Christopher Martinez died, a sense of outrage has been growing in the Latino community, where many residents are questioning how such a thing could have happened in the United States.

“We all think it was a bad thing that the doctor did, but as much as I blame the clinic, I also blame the government,” said Estevan Oton, 68, who lives across the street from the Consultorio Medico clinic, which has been closed since Friday.

“If you sell tamales in the street you need a license,” Oton said. “See that store across the street? They don’t sell beer because they don’t have a license.

“But to practice medicine here in Santa Ana, no one makes sure you have a license?” Oton asked.

In an attempt to find Gamaliel Moreno, who ran the clinic and who allegedly treated Christopher without a license--which is required by state law--Santa Ana police on Tuesday released a photo of Moreno. Moreno, who has not been charged with any crime, has not been seen since Friday, the day after Christopher died. The cause of the baby’s death has not been determined, pending the results of toxicological and other tests. His parents had taken him to the clinic because of vomiting and diarrhea.

Moreno gave the ailing baby five injections of an undetermined substance over three days, family members said, charging $75 per visit.

Los Amigos was scheduled to discuss Christopher’s death at its weekly meeting this morning, and David said he would urge the group to alert the public to the potential danger at clinics that have no governmental oversight.

“Personally, I would rather that they do not have the option of going to these false clinics, but that we force people to go seek legitimate, qualified care,” he said.

But at this point, no agencies are planning to look into whether there are more medical clinics operating with unlicensed personnel.

A spokesman for the local office of the Medical Board of California, which oversees the licensing of doctors, said it lacks the investigators to conduct such an inquiry.

“We don’t have the staff resources to make a sweep of the county to see who is licensed and who is not,” said Felix Rodriguez, supervisor of the board’s office in Tustin.

The state does investigate when it receives complaints, said Dave Thornton, supervising investigator for the Medical Board of California. At least 250 complaints are registered each year regarding possible unlicensed doctors, he said, and although complaints are not broken down by county, the majority come from Los Angeles and Orange counties.

The number of complaints that have resulted in action is not readily available, he said.

Santa Ana officials said that although Consultorio Medico operated within city borders, the city was responsible only for issuing a business license, which it did in January 1997, not overseeing the clinic’s medical practices.

And the Anaheim office of the state Department of Health Services, which licenses and certifies medical facilities, only has oversight for nonprofit clinics, district manager Jacqueline Lincer said. Even with that function, it does not launch random investigations into clinics but mainly responds to consumer complaints.

Health and safety codes permit any physician to open a clinic without a license, Lincer said. Clinics and medical offices simply need to register with the state medical board, so officials can link the business name with the physician who runs it.

The Santa Ana business license included Moreno’s partner, Rafael Garay. Garay does not have a medical license, officials said.

David said the smaller, unregulated clinics thrive, in part, because immigrants who are undocumented are afraid they will be deported if they go to hospitals.

“But I don’t think anybody [at hospitals and community clinics] would deny them the service, regardless of their residency,” David said. “That poor child should not have died like that.”

Before Moreno opened the Consultorio Medico clinic near Flower and First streets, he operated Clinica Mexico Latina on the 120 block of East Washington Avenue. That clinic reopened in December under the name Clinica Medica Latino-Americana and is run by a different staff.

Francisco Gomez, administrator at Clinica Medica Latino-Americana, said Moreno’s old “patients” still come looking for him.

“People come around all the time looking for him and asking us for services, like abortions, that we don’t offer. . . . There are other weird services they ask for,” said Gomez, declining to elaborate.

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Times staff writers H.G. Reza, Erika Chavez and Susan Abram contributed to this report.