Child in
foster care dies weeks after creek rescue
Web Posted:
05/31/2006 04:17 PM CDT
Tom Bower
Express-News
A 12-year-old boy who was rescued from a rain-swollen creek in
Kerr County on May 6 while living at the Star Ranch foster care
facility in Ingram has died.
Lenny Ortega, one of seven children in the family of Angelica and
Larry Ortega of San Antonio, died at 8:15 p.m. Tuesday in a Medical
Center hospice, said Dennis Moreno, a court appointed attorney for
Angelica Ortega.
Lenny, was one of 19 youths who were under the care of Child
Protective Services and had been temporarily placed at Star Ranch
after being removed from their families because of allegations of
neglect or abuse. Moreno, however, contended there was no legal
reason for the Ortega children to be removed and the parents denied
that their children were in danger in the home.
Lenny, who had a mild form of mental retardation, was rescued
from the rushing waters of Johnson Creek around 10:40 p.m. on May 6
while a group of residents were on a bicycle outing on Bluff Trails
Road about five miles northwest of Ingram.
The incident came on the heels of the Dec. 4 death of another
12-year-old boy who suffocated after being placed in a "basket hold"
by a Star Ranch staffer as the boy tried to bang his own head on the
pavement.
The Ortega incident prompted CPS to cancel its residential
treatment contract with Star Ranch on May 10 and relocate the other
18 boys that had been temporarily placed at the facility.
After he was rescued by a neighboring landowner and resuscitated
by volunteer firefighters, Lenny was rushed to Kerrville's Sid
Peterson Hospital. Later that same day, he was transferred to
Methodist Children's Hospital in San Antonio. Last week,
neurosurgeons told family members and CPS caseworkers that Lenny was
brain dead and would die within days or weeks.
Moreno said Lenny's parents authorized a do-not-resuscitate order
and gave the go-ahead for Lenny's organs to be donated upon his
death. However, when he died, Lenny also was suffering from an
internal infection that prevented any organ donation. Only his
corneas were able to be saved for transplantation.
The irony, Moreno said, is that Lenny and his brothers and
sisters had been cleared at the beginning of May for reunification
with their parents.
"That was the real tragedy of this whole thing," Moreno said.
In addition to his parents, Lenny is survived by two brothers,
ages 14 and 11, and four sisters, ages 9, 7, 6, and 3, Moreno said.
