Minority science program at Children's Hospital receives endowment

A rigorous science program at Children's Hospital Los Angeles aimed at encouraging minority students to pursue a career in the field received an endowment this month that should fund the program for years to come.

The Latino and African-American High School Internship Program selects 16 students each year from around Los Angeles County. Under the watch of professionals, they conduct their own research in laboratories at the hospital's Saban Research Institute.

The endowment, from longtime hospital supporters and philanthropists Lori and Ted Samuels, continues the couple's support of the program. They provided seed money to launch it in 2005. The exact amount of this month's endowment was not released.

The program will be renamed the Samuels Family Latino and African-American High School Internship Program. Dr. Emil Bogenmann, the program's founder and director, said the generous donation is essential to their mission.

"This gift makes it possible for our intern program to continue providing opportunities to local minority students for decades to come,” he said.

Bogenmann, a Swiss-born molecular scientist, began the program after he recognized a lack of diversity among students in a similar one he led for students from the Marlborough School, a private all-girls institution in Hancock Park. He decided then to build a program that would aggressively recruit minority public school students from underrepresented areas of Los Angeles County.

Last summer, students conducted research on bacterial meningitis among infants; others studied cancer and HIV. Some analyzed how the human lung develops, while another researched eye tumors.

To be eligible for the program, students must attend school in the Los Angeles or Compton unified school districts or live within their boundaries.

About 100 students apply each year for the 16 spots. The program also provides SAT test-prep, college counseling and financial aid application assistance for the students.

Ted Samuels serves as the co-chair on the hospital’s board of trustees. Lori Samuels serves on the executive committee of the Los Angeles Zoo and Botanical Gardens. She is also chair of the education committee and a member of the board of overseers for the Huntington Library.

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12-year-old who gave pot brownie to kids at school arrested

A 12-year-old Orange County boy has been arrested for allegedly taking a pot brownie to his elementary school and making seven students sick.

Costa Mesa Lt. Greg Scott said officers arrested the Pomona Elementary School sixth-grader who shared a marijuana-laced brownie with his peers Tuesday, according to the Daily Pilot.

When the student returned to school Thursday, administrators questioned him and found a small bag of marijuana in his backpack. Administrators confiscated the drug and notified Costa Mesa detectives, Scott said.

The boy was arrested at home Thursday for misdemeanor possession of marijuana on campus. He has since been released to his parents.

The students who ate the brownie were briefly hospitalized Tuesday before being released to their parents.

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Pickup truck hits 5 pedestrians on downtown sidewalk, killing one

Several pedestrians were recuperating Monday and another was dead after being hit by a truck that then crashed into a downtown Los Angeles restaurant.

The pickup was heading south on Broadway and had just crossed 4^th Street when it ran into five pedestrians who were standing on the sidewalk. One of the pedestrians, a 52-year-old woman, died at the scene.

The other four victims, all between 41 and 72 years old, were taken to local hospitals in serious condition, said Officer Alex Martinez. Two others also suffered minor injuries.

The Chevrolet Avalanche then crashed through a window at Casa India Restaurant at 348 S. Broadway. The structural integrity of the building was not compromised, police said.

It was not immediately clear whether the driver was injured in the crash or was arrested. Police from the Central Community Police Station and Central Traffic Division were investigating.

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Photo: Prayer candles stand at the site where a woman waiting for a bus was killed and several other pedestrians hurt after a truck crashed into a downtown Los Angeles restaurant on Broadway Street  just north of 4th Street. Credit: Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times

LAFD considers plan to beef up ambulance service for flu season

Fire officials in Los Angeles are considering a plan to beef up ambulance service to deal with expected increases in the number of patients who need to be transported to hospitals if the flu virus wreaks havoc across the region.

Officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have warned that the flu season started early this year, signaling that it could be a bad season for the illness. 

In the Los Angeles region, the virus could hit its peak in February and result in more people calling 911 for help, officials said. More people at hospitals could also result in ambulances being out of service longer while rescue crews wait for patients to be admitted.

The Los Angeles Fire Department is looking at ways to provide up to six more ambulances during peak transport periods, which are normally between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m., said Deputy Chief David Yamahata.

"We're gearing up for that potential," he told The Times. 

To provide personnel for the ambulances, the LAFD may temporarily close some of its light forces, which have six firefighters assigned to an aerial ladder truck and a pumper truck. 

Two of those firefighters would staff each reserve ambulance, Yamhata said, and the others would be stationed on fire engines. The light forces would go back in service when the ambulances are shut down for the night.

"We just have to determine at what threshold we would pull the trigger," said Yamahata, who oversees emergency operations for the department.

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Photo: A Los Angeles Fire Department ambulance on skid row in 2009. Credit: Lawrence K. Ho/Los Angeles Times

County health clinic to open in skid row apartment building

Recognizing the high cost of treating homeless patients, Los Angeles County plans to open a health clinic inside a skid row apartment building.

Residents of the 102-unit building, scheduled to open this summer on 6th Street, will be carefully chosen based on their health needs and their regular use of the emergency healthcare system.

"We’re looking at our folks who are at risk of further deterioration and death and who are seen frequently in our expensive emergency rooms," said Marc Trotz, who directs the Housing for Health office for the county’s Department of Health Services.

Homeless patients often are treated in emergency rooms and hospitals, only to be sent back out onto the streets, Trotz said. "It’s terrible for the people, and it’s expensive for our system," he said.

The clinic will offer both physical and mental healthcare for the residents and for others living in the community. The administrative offices of Housing for Health with also be at the site.

Residents will be able to manage their health more effectively by having the clinic on site, said Michael Alvidrez, executive director of the Skid Row Housing Trust. There will be art and career development classes offered at the building as well.

The apartment complex, being built by Skid Row Housing Trust, will also have a recreational facility that includes a basketball court and a track.

Theresa Winkler, 49, who lives in another one of the supportive housing complexes, said she started taking care of her epilepsy and post-traumatic stress disorder only after getting off the streets.

"Today I take my medication because I have somewhere to put it," she said.

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Valley doctor bilks Medicare out of more than $3 million

A medical doctor  who ran a  clinic in the San Fernando Valley pleaded guilty Thursday to one count of healthcare fraud involving bilking the federal Medicare social insurance program out of more than $3 million, according to a statement issued by the the U.S. attorney’s office Central District of California.

Pezhman Ebrahimzadeh, known as  Pez Abrahams, claimed reimbursement for procedures he never performed and sometimes involving patients he never met, authorities said. And in at least one case, the purported patient was dead.

The statement said Ebrahimzadeh owns the Winnetka Medical Group, a cosmetic healthcare clinic that operates under the name Health & Beauty Clinic. The 50-year-old  Calabasas resident offered cosmetic treatments involving radiofrequency lasers and liposuction at the clinic, authorities said.

Amid serious flu season, should nurses be required to get shots?

Public health officials warned Friday that the flu virus wreaking havoc elsewhere in the nation has finally arrived in California, causing widespread hospitalizations across the state.

The increase in illnesses so early could signal a worse flu season than in years past, and medical experts are urging everyone to take precautions by getting a flu shot.

But Times health writer Anna Gorman reports that only about 60% of doctors, nurses and other medical workers get the shot each year, according to a report by the California Department of Public Health. And hospital administrators are grappling with whether to compel them.

State and federal health officials said that it's important for healthcare workers to get immunized because their jobs put them in a position to spread the virus to large numbers of patients. Moreover, hospitals need them to stay well during the busy flu season.

“The flu is particularly severe, particularly deadly among folks that have underlying conditions, and these are the very folks you find in hospitals,” said Gil Chavez, deputy director of the center for infectious diseases for the California Department of Public Health.

Anti-smoking advocate says hospital fired him for speaking out

A longtime anti-smoking advocate has filed a multimillion-dollar wrongful termination lawsuit against Glendale Adventist Medical Center, as well as three City Council members he alleges used their political influence to get him fired.

Steven Gallegos was terminated from his job as a tobacco outreach worker in October after he spoke out publicly last fall against the City Council for loosening smoking restrictions for restaurants with large outdoor seating areas.

According to the lawsuit — filed Dec. 24 in Los Angeles County Superior Court — Gallegos is seeking more than $5 million each from the hospital, three Glendale Adventist officials and council members Ara Najarian, Laura Friedman and Rafi Manoukian.

Gallegos, who has been advocating for anti-smoking legislation for more than a decade, said in an interview that he was shocked when he was fired after writing a letter to the editor to the Glendale News-Press criticizing council members who had voted to loosen the restriction.

In September, Gallegos said in an interview, he received a 3% merit wage increase. In May, Kevin Roberts, Glendale Adventist’s chief executive, sent him a hand-written card congratulating him for his good work.

“My heart was broken,” Gallegos said of his termination. “The local and national reputation that I have was tossed out the window and I really feel that politics got in the way of public health.”

Three Coachella men die when car slams into tree

Three Coachella men were killed in the predawn hours Saturday when their vehicle crashed into a palm tree in the center median of a La Quinta street.

Two of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene, another died at John F. Kennedy Memorial Hospital in Indio.

A fourth occupant of the car was taken by helicopter to Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs.

The initial investigation suggested that only one car was involved, and it was traveling at a high speed while heading eastbound on Avenue 52, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department.

Alcohol was a factor in the accident, the department said in a release.

The Riverside County coroner identified the men who were killed as Eric Ceballos, 20; Orlando Diarte, 20, and Michael Garcia, 21. Garcia was driving, authorities said. All were residents of Coachella. 

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After surgeries at L.A. burn center, Ugandan orphan walks again

Adolf Baguma, a Ugandan orphan unable to walk on his severely burned legs, got an incredible gift this year: Well-wishers from the United States brought him to the Grossman Burn Center in Los Angeles. After two surgeries, Baguma's legs are straight, and he is able to walk unassisted for the first time in years.

The boy's journey began in June, when Los Angeles attorney Laine Wagenseller traveled on a mission to Uganda and met him while volunteering at an orphanage in Kyenjojo. Adolf, now 11, had been living there since his parents died of AIDS and his teenage aunt, who had beat him with flaming banana leaves, scarring his legs, abandoned him.

Wagenseller contacted the Children's Burn Foundation, a local nonprofit organization that provides services for young burn victims. Every year the organization pays for full recovery services — including surgeries, physical therapy and other follow-up care — for about 200 children, according to Executive Director Carol Horvitz. The group arranged for Adolf's visa and trip to Los Angeles.

Since he arrived last month, he has undergone two surgeries, one to release the scar tissue and stretch his compressed muscles and tendons to their full length, and a second to place a skin graft on his legs. A few days before Christmas, the boy stood and took his first steps upright, smiling from ear to ear, said Dr. Peter Grossman, medical director at the burn center.

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Photo: Dr. Peter Grossman hugs 11-year-old Adolf Baguma, a Ugandan orphan undergoing treatment at the Grossman Burn Center. Credit: Francine Orr / Los Angeles Times