Grim Details of Boy’s Injury Emerge

When the first rescuers reached Brandon Zucker trapped beneath Roger Rabbit’s Car Toon Spin at Disneyland, the 4-year-old boy was lifeless. No breath, no pulse.

His father had jumped off screaming for help: “You’ve got to stop this ride! My kid’s underneath the car!” His tearful mother pleaded inside: “Get my baby out!”

The little boy was nearly folded in half, his head to his knees in a narrow space.

Disneyland Fire Department officials at first believed they needed the Jaws of Life to pry Brandon free. And the doctor who first treated him said his condition was so critical, she thought he might die.

These details of a chaotic and terrifying scene emerged Wednesday in police reports, transcripts from the first emergency call to paramedics and interviews with Brandon’s emergency room team and a woman who said she was on the ride Friday night.

“It was scary,” Oregon resident Teresa Reed told The Times on Wednesday, saying she had been at Disneyland on Friday with her husband and two children. “People were screaming. The people that were in line, they were all jumping over the fence to leave.”

Reed, a medical assistant, was sitting next to her 6-year-old son in a car toward the end of the ride, which was still moving slowly when Brandon’s father, David Zucker, ran out shouting for them to stop it.

Reed had her husband stay with their son and 2-year-old daughter while she ran into the dark interior of the ride. A nurse who had been in line also tried to help rescue Brandon, along with several other parkgoers.

When Reed approached the car, she knew instantly the accident was serious, she said. She expected a stuck leg or a minor scrape, but Brandon’s entire body was trapped.

“The first night, I couldn’t sleep,” Reed said. “I’d close my eyes and that’s what I’d see. . . . He was smashed in there. He was totally underneath the car. He looked so little under there.”

The trapped boy’s mother was leaning against a wall, crying and begging for someone to free him.

ER Doctor Feared Boy Might Die There

Brandon, who was unconscious, couldn’t be moved at all because of the vehicle on his back. The nurse, a park visitor, tried his pulse, but felt nothing. Reed tried too, with no success.

After a few minutes, Reed said, Disneyland personnel arrived to lift up the car. At that point, she left.

A Disneyland spokesman declined to comment because the accident is still being investigated.

In the confusion, it remains unclear how long Brandon might have gone without oxygen.

When paramedics arrived, he was not breathing, but by the time they got him to UCI Medical Center, he had a weak pulse.

However, the emergency team at the hospital had its work cut out. Brandon’s skin was discolored from the lack of oxygen. His liver, spleen and diaphragm were torn and a lung was collapsed. His pelvic bone was fractured.

Nearly a dozen doctors, nurses and emergency medical technicians converged in the ER, surrounding the 45-pound boy’s small frame.

Brandon’s doctor, Marianne Cinat, said he looked so bad, her first assessment was grim. He was “a critically injured boy who could die right [in the emergency room],” she said.

Since then, however, Cinat said Brandon has shown some signs of improvement. His color has vastly improved and the swelling in his body has decreased. His condition is stable, but still critical.

“He is not out of the woods,” Cinat said. “He is still very, very sick.”

She still does not know whether Brandon will be able to breathe on his own when they attempt to take him off life support or if he suffered any brain damage.

It may be days or even weeks before they ease him from his drug-induced coma because his body needs more time to recover from the trauma.

On Friday night, his parents pleaded with doctors and nurses, “Please don’t let him die.” The emergency room charge nurse, Sherlene Stepp, said she told the Zuckers the same thing she reminds herself: “Never give up hope or faith in kids. Kids are very resilient.”

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Times staff writers Jessica Garrison and Meg James contributed to this report.