Suit Over Boy’s Care May End

Los Angeles County has tentatively agreed to pay $2.5 million to settle a medical negligence lawsuit alleging that a young boy suffered irreversible brain damage while in protective custody at MacLaren Children’s Center.

Brandon Yepez was 4 years old in 2001 when he became ill at the El Monte facility and staff members failed to get him prompt medical help, said his attorney, R. Brian Kramer.

“This was a tragic event that did not have to happen,” Kramer said. “When [the county] takes a child into protective custody, they’re required to protect the child, and they basically destroyed his life.”

The county Claims Board recommended the settlement Monday. The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to consider it April 6.

Brandon was born with methylmalonic acidemia, which affects his ability to metabolize proteins. According to a report to the Claims Board from county attorneys, a social worker failed to summon an ambulance when the boy became ill from the disorder during a two-day stay at MacLaren. Instead, the worker drove Brandon in a car to Childrens Hospital Los Angeles.

The child “suffers from profound brain damage ... which medical experts will attribute to the 1 hour and 50 minute delay in timely treatment,” county attorneys Mark A. Weinstein and Owen L. Gallagher said in the report. They said the county could lose $5.5 million if the case were to go to trial.

Brandon’s genetic disorder causes dangerously high acid levels to develop quickly in his blood if he doesn’t eat every four hours, and MacLaren failed to follow his feeding schedule, Kramer said. Before taking Brandon to MacLaren, county officials took him to Childrens Hospital for an evaluation. Doctors gave them explicit instructions to call an ambulance if he became ill at MacLaren, according to the Claims Board report.

Kramer said county officials returned custody of Brandon, now 8, to his family shortly after the incident. MacLaren was closed in March 2003.