Parent’s Fate Tied to Life-or-Death Decision for Son

His eyes wide open but empty, baby Christopher lies in a stainless-steel crib, plastic tubes twisting from bedside machines into holes in his throat and belly.

On some days, his body twitches slightly. But for the most part, ever since being rushed to the hospital one week before Christmas, Christopher has lain motionless under rows of fluorescent lights, relying on machines to feed him and fill his tiny lungs with oxygen.

Doctors say the 7 1/2-month-old has suffered a devastating brain injury and will not recover. His mother wants to turn off the machines that keep Christopher alive and end what she considers his torture.

But Christopher’s father has withheld his approval for almost four months. He’s voicing his objections from a cell at the Orange County Jail, where he stands accused of felony child abuse for allegedly shaking Christopher and throwing him into his crib.

The father’s attorney said he’s hoping for a “miracle.” But both Christopher’s mother and authorities note that if Christopher dies, his father’s charges would be upgraded from assault to homicide.

Now it’s up to the system to determine Christopher’s fate, balancing a parent’s right to keep his child alive with the self-interest that might motivate that decision.

Orange County social workers have taken temporary custody of the baby, arguing that neither parent is fit to care for him.

Watching out for the baby’s interests falls to an attorney appointed by a judge to represent him in family court. Harold LaFlamme struggles with the question. Each outcome, he says, is fraught with problems.

“If some third party makes a decision to turn off the juice, then are you giving the defendant parent a defense, ‘I didn’t kill the kid, the child’s attorney did,’ ” he said. “As a general proposition, the juvenile courts prefer to let the parents make the decision. But that doesn’t seem to be happening here.”

Christopher was an underdog from the beginning, the son of a young, impoverished couple. His mother, Tamara Sepulveda, suffered a childhood brain injury that has slowed her speech and thought process, according to a report prepared by the county’s Social Services Agency in the wake of Christopher’s injury.

His father, Moises Ibarra, has a temper, the report states, that led him to shake the child out of frustration many times before Christopher suffered the paralyzing injury.

Ibarra and Sepulveda, both 23, met a few years ago while living on boats in a gritty marina beneath the Terminal Island Freeway near the Port of Los Angeles. The young couple had a volatile relationship, breaking up after loud arguments only to get back together, again and again.

Christopher was born Sept. 2 as Sepulveda sat on a toilet in the couple’s apartment, according to the Social Services report. The new addition to the family caused the couple’s arguments to intensify. Often, the subject of their squabbling was the rough way Sepulveda thought Ibarra was treating their son, she said.

On Dec. 17, their roommate heard another argument from behind the couple’s closed bedroom door. There was screaming, then a loud thud, said the roommate, Michael Martinez.

Ibarra emerged from the bedroom of their Cypress apartment with a look of panic on his face, their roommate recalled.

“Help!” he said. “My baby’s not breathing.”

Christopher lay limp in Ibarra’s arms. His skin had turned purple.

The parents gave conflicting accounts about what happened to their baby, according to the report by social workers. At first, Sepulveda told authorities that she went to change Christopher’s diaper that night and found he was not breathing. Later, she changed her story, insisting that she watched her boyfriend shake the baby and then throw his body into the crib, causing his head to snap back.

Paramedics rushed the infant to La Palma Inter-Community Hospital in critical condition. A few days later, after the baby was moved to Children’s Hospital of Orange County, a social worker and doctor called Sepulveda and her mother, Susan, into a small conference room for a meeting.

Christopher will need to be on a life-support system for the rest of his life, Sepulveda recalls the doctor telling her. He’ll never hug you, never speak to you, the doctor told her.

The Social Services Agency report later described the baby as “neurologically devastated,” unable to breathe on his own or respond to pain. The report quoted a doctor as saying: “The only thing he is doing is gasping, otherwise we would have pronounced him brain dead.”

After hearing the grim prognosis, Sepulveda didn’t take long to make her decision.

“I want him to go to heaven,” she said.

The social worker said she’d need Ibarra’s permission. But by this time, Cypress police had already taken the father to the Orange County Jail. A few days later, the social worker called to say that Ibarra wouldn’t allow them to disconnect the machines.

And without the father’s approval, the child would stay on life support.

Ibarra, held on $250,000 bail, said through his attorney that the only reason he’s refusing to cut off life support is his love for his son. Ibarra’s lawyer maintains that doctors were initially more optimistic about Christopher’s chances for survival and that his client still has faith that the baby can pull through.

“I am holding out hope for a miracle, as is my client,” said Assistant Public Defender David Dworakowski. “Mr. Ibarra is presumed innocent of these charges and is obviously devastated by the events, as any loving father would be.”

Ibarra’s trial on child abuse charges will likely go to trial later this year. California law would allow prosecutors to charge Ibarra with murder if his son dies, even if he’s already been convicted of child abuse. Cypress police Sgt. Gordon Re said his department would recommend murder charges if Christopher dies.

Legal experts and medical ethicists described Christopher’s case as highly unusual, and one in which the law offers no easy answers. Although courts usually leave decisions about a child’s medical options in the hands of parents, this might not be wise when a parent has a vested interest in the outcome, they said.

“Clearly, the decision should not be in the hands of a parent who has so much to gain or lose by the decision,” said Gerald Uelmen, a professor at Santa Clara University’s law school.

David Blake, vice president of mission and ethics at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, said normal medical protocols also break down in such an unusual case because the motivation of the parent is in question.

Experts said they know of few cases similar to Christopher’s. Six years ago, a New York doctor fought a hospital’s attempts to turn off life support for the infant daughter he was accused of violently shaking. A judge granted the hospital’s request to disconnect life-support systems, but the girl instead was transferred to a Catholic hospital at the request of Cardinal John O’Connor. The child later died, and the doctor was convicted of manslaughter.

At least temporarily, both of Christopher’s parents have lost their right to decide his fate. Orange County’s Child and Family Services division received permission from a judge to take Christopher into temporary protective custody while it sorts out the issues and allegations. Social workers faulted Sepulveda for not doing more to protect Christopher from abuse.

The court also appointed attorney LaFlamme to represent Christopher’s interests in court. LaFlamme said he plans to seek multiple medical opinions on the baby’s condition, but he remains unsure about how long Christopher’s fate will remain in limbo.

In most instances, California physicians will remove life support only with the consent of a child’s parents or legal guardian.

“Am I doing him service by keeping him alive? . . . I don’t know [yet],” LaFlamme said. “If the medical community says this is cruel to keep him alive, then I might have to make some choices.”

Sepulveda, meanwhile, plans to file a petition with the court to turn off Christopher’s life-support system--a move LaFlamme said he may well support if he concludes the baby will never recover. “It’s really a parent’s decision,” he said.

Christopher’s crib is decorated with many of the toys that used to adorn the crib at his family’s apartment in Cypress. There is a stuffed Mickey Mouse doll in one corner and a music box that plays the nursery rhyme “Itsy Bitsy Spider” in another.

Christopher lay on his back during a recent afternoon at the hospital. The only time his body moved was when his chest expanded with air from a breathing machine. Sepulveda rubbed her son’s knee gently and said, “Mama’s here. It’s OK.”

She passed a hand over his eyes, but they didn’t move. Instead, they remained wide open, his brown pupils shifted to the left, dead still for 20 minutes. Before she left, Sepulveda told her son what she hopes happens to him.

“It’s time to go to heaven,” she said.