Nurse Faces Charge of Denying Care : Medicine: The parents were allegedly told at an emergency room to take their seriously ill girl to another hospital. The child lost a foot to gangrene.

In the first such prosecution in the city, a criminal charge was filed Thursday against a nurse at Panorama Community Hospital who allegedly denied emergency medical care to a seriously ill baby girl, telling her parents to go to a county hospital, the Los Angeles city attorney’s office said.

Veronica Ayala, now 2 years old, lost one foot and the toes of the other to gangrene, which resulted from meningococcemia, a contagious blood infection that she was suffering from when she was rushed to the hospital exactly one year ago today, City Atty. James K. Hahn said.

Deputy City Atty. Ellen Pais, who is prosecuting the case, said her office does not know why the girl was turned away, but she noted that the emergency room nurse was on overtime and Veronica’s parents could not prove that they had medical insurance.

Veronica currently is undergoing plastic surgery and skin grafts at UCLA Medical Center as a result of large purple blotches caused by the pooling of blood under the skin, Hahn said.

“I can’t say she lost her foot because they sent her away from Panorama, but her condition was extremely critical,� Pais said.

Panorama Hospital officials said they had reviewed the case in detail and consider it groundless.

“The hospital has no reason to believe that the family sought assistance on Dec. 8, 1988, at Panorama Community Hospital,� said Candyce Columbus, director of marketing.

Deborah Carol Nachman, 37, of Sherman Oaks was charged with violating a recently enacted state Health and Safety Code statute that makes it a misdemeanor for a health-care professional to deny medical care to a patient whose life is in danger or who shows signs of serious illness or injury, Pais said.

If convicted, Nachman could face $1,000 in fines and six months in jail, Pais said. A letter notifying Nachman of the charge was sent Thursday, and she is scheduled to be arraigned Jan. 8 in Los Angeles Municipal Court, Pais said.

Under the law that applies to this case, individual health-care professionals can be charged, but the hospitals they work for are immune from criminal prosecution.

The baby’s parents, Alfonso Ayala and Maria Martinez of Sepulveda, were told on the night of Dec. 8 last year to take the 15-month-old girl to Olive View Medical Center in Sylmar, even though she had a high fever and her body was covered with the blotches, Hahn said. Olive View is a county facility that offers care at low fees or free of charge to indigent patients.

The Spanish-speaking couple, who spoke through a bilingual friend, were unable to prove that they had medical insurance, although they were covered by Medi-Cal, Pais said.

Nachman apparently did not tell the couple exactly why she was sending them to another hospital, Pais said.

The incident was reported to county health officials by administrators at Olive View, Pais said.