A damaged boy

ON the evening of Jan. 29, 1997, Ernesto Alonso De La Torre lay in the pediatric intensive care unit at King/Drew, recovering from pneumonia. Doctors had decided that day that the 2-year-old was well enough to go home.

At 6:30 p.m., one of Ernesto’s nurses went to dinner, leaving the unit understaffed, according to a subsequent analysis of the case by lawyers for the county.

Soon afterward, the boy’s breathing tube became dislodged, the analysis said.

At 6:49 p.m., monitors showed he was receiving 96% of the oxygen he needed.

At 6:52 p.m., it was zero.

At 6:55 p.m., someone noticed.

Despite resuscitation efforts, Ernesto was left severely brain-damaged.

His mother, Maria De La Torre, was in a hospital waiting room. She remembers a nurse coming to tell her “something has happened to your son.”

Twenty-three days later he was transferred to a convalescent home in North Hollywood, where he still lives.

Ernesto suffers from profound mental retardation and extreme weakness in all four limbs. He requires a wheelchair, breathing tube and feeding tube. He cannot speak.

Maria De La Torre sued the county, which settled the case for $840,000 in 2000. The money goes to Ernesto’s care.

She tries to visit him twice a month, although she still cares for three of her seven children at home in South Los Angeles while working part time in a bakery making pies.”I can’t believe what a joyful boy God gave me,” Maria said, caressing his hair on a recent visit.

Later, she said she was hopeful: The convalescent home soon was going to teach Ernesto how to wiggle his pinkie when someone said his name.