Garden Grove Medical Plaza in Irvine, California, where a doctor”s botched circumcision allegedly led to a newborn’s death (Google Maps).
A California doctor is facing criminal charges after he gave a 3-day-old infant a narcotic instead of a local anesthetic, which led to the boy’s death, according to a lawsuit.
Dr. Hong-An Jan faces a charge of involuntary manslaughter in the death of Charles Wang, Orange County court records show. Jan also is facing a wrongful death and medical malpractice lawsuit filed by the boy’s parents.
According to the lawsuit, obtained by Law&Crime, Jan performed the circumcision on Feb. 27, 2024, at his private practice at Garden Grove Medical Plaza.
“Within hours of the procedure, Charles exhibited profound lethargy, an inability to accept feeding, and abnormal unresponsiveness,” the lawsuit said.
The boy’s parents, Yiqi Wang and Hongyu Lu, repeatedly sought medical advice from Jan but were “affirmatively reassured” that the symptoms were “normal,” per the suit. Charles was dead by the next 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.
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