A tentative settlement has been reached in a lawsuit filed against Children’s Hospital Los Angeles on behalf of a then-3-year-old boy who allegedly suffered a brain injury during care for leukemia in 2025.
Attorneys representing the boy, now 4 years old, filed court papers on Tuesday with Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Jerrold Abeles informing him of a “conditional” resolution of the case with the expectation a request for dismissal will eventually be filed. No terms were divulged.
The suit was filed last Sept. 24 on the boy’s behalf by his guardian. The hospital denied any liability and said the CHLA staff had the proper consent for all care given.
According to the suit, the boy suffered a severe hypoxic brain injury at CHLA on May 22, 2025, due to a cardiac arrest caused by an acute blocked airway and a delay in resuscitation in the sedation suite. The boy was brought to CHLA a day earlier from Glendale Adventist Hospital for diagnostic testing and treatment for leukemia, which was first suspected when the child’s parents brought him to the hospital for complaints of lethargy, fever and a nose bleed, the complaint stated.
A CHLA nurse used a hard plastic suction device attached to wall suction, which was not the right step with a 3-year-old leukemia patient with low platelets and a history of epistaxis, the suit alleged. The blockage of the boy’s airway caused by the laryngspasm quickly led to hypoxia with a drop in his oxygen saturation and cardiac arrest, according to the complaint.
At one point a nurse pressed the code blue button on the wall, which sounded an alarm in the room, but the nurse was unaware that activating a code blue required pressing 33 on the phone to notify the hospital operator about the location of the cardiac arrest so that the operator could notify the code blue team, the suit stated.
A code blue in a hospital means a patient, visitor or staff member is experiencing a life-threatening medical emergency, most commonly a cardiac or respiratory arrest.
The boy was discharged from CHLA on June 25, 2025, and he has remained at home with his parents. He has been undergoing out-patient treatment for his leukemia at CHLA and remains in remission, and he also undergoes therapy for his motor disabilities.
The child has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy and has delayed ability to control his muscles, his attorneys’ court papers stated. He also has “persistent expressive and receptive language delays,” and will likely never be able to work and will be unable to live independently because his severe brain injury is permanent, according to the suit.
The boy’s attorneys include Bruce G. Fagel, a former emergency room physician.