Accident Victim Brain-Damaged

Brandon Zucker, the 4 1/2-year-old boy injured last month at Disneyland, suffered brain damage and will most likely be moved to a long-term care facility, hospital officials said Thursday.

The boy, from Canyon Country in northern Los Angeles County, remains in a coma at UCI Medical Center in Orange following the Sept. 22 accident.

He was trapped for an estimated 10 minutes underneath a ride car at Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin, according to new information released Thursday by the Anaheim Fire Department. It is not clear exactly how much time Brandon went without oxygen, but when he was rescued he had no pulse and was not breathing.

An Anaheim Fire Department memo released this week showed that Disneyland officials called 911 three and a half minutes after the ride shut down. The Times previously reported that Fire Department records indicated that Disneyland officials called five minutes after the ride stopped.

A Disneyland spokesman would not confirm the new time estimate, saying the matter was still under investigation.

When Anaheim paramedics reached Brandon, six minutes after being dispatched, Disneyland firefighters and maintenance personnel had freed the boy by removing the floor boards from the ride car. A Disneyland nurse was giving the boy CPR. Anaheim paramedics took over and opened the boy’s airway. Brandon had been pinned, folded in half with his head resting on his knees.

State investigators continue to look into the cause of the accident.

On Thursday, Disneyland spokesman Ray Gomez said that tests conducted during a safety review prompted by the accident showed that the lap bar that closes over passengers after they board the ride “was not a factor in the accident.” Gomez also said that the seating arrangement on the ride, with Brandon next to an opening, was not a factor, as some outside analysts have suggested.