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Father of son who died files negligence claim against San Diego County

San Diego Union-Tribune - 6/7/2021

William Alcantara was 24 when he died from a blood clot in his lungs late last year.

The medical examiner said Alcantara's autism was a contributing factor, but the manner of death was nonetheless ruled natural.

"The autopsy demonstrated a well-nourished man with no significant traumatic injuries," the official record states. "Toxicological testing detected no alcohol or common drugs of abuse."

But Gustavo Alcantara doesn't think there was anything natural about his son's Dec. 10 death. He filed a claim against San Diego County last month, accusing officials of failing to properly monitor Alcantara's condition after they removed him from his Imperial Beach home.

"My son die(d) from deep venous thrombosis with too many marks and bruises on his body," the claim states. "It was not a natural death. The caregiver (kept) assaulting my son, punishing him to keep it calm."

The legal claim, which is required before a civil lawsuit can be filed, seeks unspecified damages against the Public Guardian, which is the county office responsible for investigating and enforcing conservatorships for people deemed by a court to be incapable of managing their finances or personal well-being.

The complaint has been acknowledged by county lawyers but not yet rejected or settled. County officials said state law prevents them from providing details of the case.

"I can share that the county was deeply, deeply saddened by William's passing and had no reason to view it as suspicious," Public Guardian LaShaunda Gaines said in a statement.

According to his father's claim, the younger Alcantara died "because he can not move away from the sofa or walk the minimum every day." It said he was "pushed to the maximum to stay (in) the same place without exercise" and "not allowed to move or walk inside the home."

Rose Dehbozorgi, who runs the Coastal Living II group home in Chula Vista where William Alcantara lived before he died, also is named in the legal claim. She did not respond to questions about the allegations.

The 12-page autopsy findings from the medical examiner's office described William Alcantara as a generally healthy man with no medical issues beyond autism. The report also noted that he weighed 148 pounds when he died and he was just under 6 feet tall.

Photographs supplied by the Alcantara family show William smiling and well above that body weight when he lived with them. A photo taken by the family in March 2020, while under conservatorship, shows William considerably thinner.

The coroner's office described a series of bruises on Alcantara's body that were unexplained, including contusions to his chest and abrasions on his upper back, right shoulder and lower abdomen.

He also had discolorations and bruising on his forearms, lower legs and right foot, the autopsy said.

The medical examiner did not test for genetic mutations that might have caused the deep venous thrombosis, a condition that is most often caused by excess weight, smoking, staying in the same position too long and other issues.

"Risk factors for pulmonary thromboemboli due to deep venous thrombosis include obesity, cigarette smoking, oral contraceptive use, immobility, trauma and genetic conditions," the report stated.

"Based on the autopsy findings and the circumstances surrounding the death, as currently understood, the cause of death is pulmonary thromboemboli due to deep venous thrombosis with autism with developmental delay listed as contributing, and the manner of death is natural."

William Alcantara did not smoke or use oral contraceptives and regularly moved around the family home when he lived there, his father said.

Dr. Steven Campman, the county's chief medical examiner, defended the report his office produced a week after Alcantara died.

He said in a statement that 148 pounds is within the normal weight range for a 5-foot, 11-inch man, and represents a body mass index of 20.6, which also is within the range of healthy people. He noted his office documented the various bruises and contusions and said it is routine to cite conditions that cause specific illnesses.

"We do not attribute those blood clots to any one of those risk factors," Campman wrote. "The presence of DVTs or injuries do not indicate the extent that he was monitored."

William Alcantara, who could not speak and had the mental capacity of a 4- or 5-year-old, was removed from his family's Imperial Beach home in 2018, according to a letter his father wrote to the judge in Alcantara's conservatorship case.

The involuntary removal came two days after Gustavo Alcantara complained to state public health officials that the county and San Diego Regional Center, a nonprofit service provider for developmentally disabled clients, ignored his pleas for an emergency dental appointment.

"If I do not make those complain(t)s, my son William (would) still (be) at home," Alcantara wrote to the judge before a hearing in January 2019 to determine whether the county's application for a permanent conservatorship should be granted.

"We love my son William Alcantara," the father pleaded to the judge. "We always try to do our best to take care of him."

But other court records and documents show a different perspective.

Some of those records indicate that a deputy public guardian was so concerned for William's physical well-being when she visited the home in October 2018, after his father's complaint, that she called paramedics to intervene. William Alcantara was transported to a Chula Vista hospital emergency room.

When he was stable enough to be discharged, he did not go home. Instead, he was placed under county and San Diego Regional Center supervision and moved into a nearby group home.

Carlos Flores, the San Diego Regional Center executive director, said federal confidentiality rules prevent him from discussing the Alcantara case. He declined to discuss the center's general practices for monitoring clients once they are placed into group homes.

Almost as soon as William Alcantara was moved into the Chula Vista home, his father began questioning the quality of care his son was receiving, according to emails to and from the Public Guardian and others.

"My son William sometimes is too tired to go to sleep because of the medicine," Gustavo Alcantara wrote to county and regional center officials in April 2019.

The situation worsened after the COVID-19 pandemic erupted in March 2020. Like so many other families, the Alcantaras were no longer able to visit with William at the Chula Vista group home.

Instead they spoke to him by phone and video-chat — until those connections became less frequent. By last summer, Gustavo Alcantara had begun accusing Dehbozorgi of impeding the family's communications and isolating his son, emails show.

He also complained to county guardians that his son's condition was deteriorating.

"Please can you, as San Diego County public guardian, stop the neglect, abuse and starvation of my son, William Alcantara?" the father wrote in late October. "We would like to see him again alive."

Lawyers for the county can recommend to the Board of Supervisors that the claim be settled or rejected. If it is rejected, Alcantara could pursue his dispute in state or federal court.

This story originally appeared in San Diego Union-Tribune.

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