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Garden Grove Medical Plaza in Irvine, California, where a doctor”s botched circumcision allegedly led to a newborn’s death (Google Maps).
A doctor based in California is now entangled in legal troubles after allegedly administering a narcotic to a newborn instead of a local anesthetic, resulting in the infant’s tragic death. This allegation forms the basis of a lawsuit against him.
Dr. Hong-An Jan has been charged with involuntary manslaughter concerning the demise of Charles Wang, as indicated by records from Orange County courts. Additionally, the grieving parents have filed a lawsuit against him for wrongful death and medical malpractice.
The lawsuit, accessed by Law&Crime, claims that Dr. Jan conducted a circumcision on February 27, 2024, at his clinic located at Garden Grove Medical Plaza.
According to the lawsuit, mere hours after the procedure, the infant Charles displayed severe lethargy, had trouble feeding, and showed alarming unresponsiveness.
Despite the parents, Yiqi Wang and Hongyu Lu, repeatedly reaching out to Dr. Jan for medical guidance, they were assured that these symptoms were “normal,” as stated in the suit. Tragically, Charles passed away the following day.
Plaintiffs allege that the doctor “intentionally administered” Demerol, a Schedule II narcotic, instead of Xylocaine, a local anesthetic typically used for circumcisions. Jan allegedly wrote in his medical report that he used the anesthetic. Toxicology reports stated that the boy had “excessive levels” of Demerol in his system.
“The administration of that narcotic was not disclosed to Plaintiffs, and its risks were concealed until the unveiling of an indictment, which, for the first time, disclosed the false records and wrong use of a narcotic sedative,” wrote plaintiff lawyer Leodis C. Matthews.
Charles’ death was initially deemed to be of natural causes.
“The claims in this case are primarily based upon the intentional misconduct, unauthorized drug administration, deceit, concealment of material facts, and conscious disregard for the life and safety of a newborn child,” the suit said.
Matthews writes in the lawsuit that there were no immediate complications after Charles’ birth. The parents opted to have Jan perform the circumcision after Charles and his mother were discharged from the hospital. But about an hour after the procedure, Charles, who was initially an active baby, became “extremely lethargic and nonresponsive, difficult to arouse, refusing any feeding, and was not acting normally as a newborn,” the lawsuit said.
The parents called Jan, who allegedly told them to “closely monitor” the baby but did not raise an alarm. But as the day went on, Charles’ condition seemed to be worsening so they brought him back to Jan’s clinic. Per the suit, Jan “looked” at the baby and assured the parents that everything was fine and told them to go home.
After falling asleep around 11 p.m. with the baby still lethargic, Lu awoke around four hours later to find Charles was “cold to the touch, despite the room being warm, he was not breathing and was completely unresponsive.” The parents rushed him to the hospital where doctors tried to revive him. However, the attempts failed and doctors pronounced the boy dead shortly after 4 a.m.
Jan did not have parental authorization to use the narcotic and instead “misled” the boy’s parents into thinking he used the local anesthetic, Matthews wrote. The plaintiffs also say that Jan’s reassurances that Charles’ symptoms in the hours after the circumcision were “materially false and misleading.”
Police began investigating after the cause of death was determined to be a drug overdose, Matthews said. Jan was later indicted by a grand jury.
According to the Los Angeles Times, a detective with the Irvine Police Department called Jan’s actions “negligent and preventable” during a court hearing. Jan pleaded not guilty and is set to appear in court on May 1. The Times reports that Jan’s medical license was suspended pending the outcome of the criminal case.