Mother of Brain-Damaged Child Awarded $6 Million

A jury awarded more than $6 million to the mother of a child who suffered severe brain damage when his oxygen tube was dislodged for about 20 minutes at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, the family’s lawyer said Tuesday.

The Los Angeles Superior Court jury determined that medical personnel had failed to notice the tube had moved and was carrying air to the child’s stomach instead of his lungs.

“This is a case where very inexperienced people were allowed to care for someone who required experienced people,” said Michael Piuze, the family’s attorney. “And when a mistake was made, instead of standing up and admitting the obvious, the county and its medical personnel conducted an obvious and disgraceful cover-up of the true facts.”

Gary Miller, principal deputy county counsel, said a decision had not yet been made whether to appeal the award.

Wylmarie Anderson’s son, Kyan Tucker, was 22 months old when he was in a car fire six years ago. Paramedics rescued him, but he suffered severe burns over a third of his body.

Because he had suffered smoke inhalation, he was put on a ventilator in the hospital’s burn unit. Children on ventilators often are given drugs to temporarily paralyze them so they will not thrash and pull out the tube, Piuze said.

During the next two weeks, he said, the child improved and his family was optimistic. But while his dressings were being changed, the tube was accidentally moved and began pumping air into his stomach, Piuze said.

Because he was not receiving oxygen, he suffered cardiac arrest. Since the incident, the child has been living at a county rehabilitation hospital.