PANEL ENDORSES DEAL FOR HURT BOY.

Byline: Lee Condon Daily News Staff Writer

A boy in a permanent vegetative state because he suffocated while tangled in a hospital restraint vest four years ago should be paid a record $3.7 million settlement, the Los Angeles County Claims Board recommended Monday.

If the deal is approved by the Board of Supervisors, it would be the largest personal injury award paid to an individual plaintiff in county history, said Lloyd Pellman, the senior member of the County Claims Board.

In November 1993, Jonathan Park, then 11, was seriously injured in a car crash and was being treated at Rancho Los Amigos Rehabilitation Center in Downey.

According to a report filed by Principal Deputy County Counsel Gary Miller and private defense lawyers, Park was in a coma but beginning to show signs of alertness and was breathing without the help of a ventilator.

But one morning in December 1993, he fell out of his hospital bed.

Park was not injured, but hospital personnel decided to place him in a Posey vest, a cloth wraparound restraint vest with long ties. He was transferred to a constant-care room, where a nurse would be present at all times.

A month later, Park was found in his bed face down, entangled in the vest with a ``visible bluish discoloration to the skin due to lack of oxygen.''

Park suffered major brain damage that has left him in a permanent vegetative state, according to Miller's report.

``The proper securing of the Posey vest would not have allowed Jonathan Park the mobility to position himself face down on the bed,'' Miller wrote in assessing the county's liability.

``Medical personnel failed to properly monitor Jonathan Park for a significant period of time while he was in a constant-care room, allowing him to position himself face down while in the Posey vest.''