LOS ANGELES (AP) — A 5-year-old girl whose mother is charged with her attempted drowning and the drowning of her 1-year-old sister has been taken off life support at a Los Angeles hospital, authorities said.
The girls' father, Jose Humberto Lopez, told KABC-TV that he hoped some good would come from the situation by the fact that he had decided to donate the 5-year-old's organs for transplant.
The girls' mother, Lorna Valle, 32, was charged with murder and attempted murder Friday and is being held on $1.5 million bail. She will face a second count of murder when the 5-year-old's death is confirmed, said officer Karen Rayner, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department.
The girl was removed from life support Monday at Children's Hospital Los Angeles, Rayner said.
Lopez told police he found his wife trying to drown the girls in a tub when he returned home from a store Wednesday morning.
Firefighters answering a 911 call found the girls unconscious and not breathing in a converted garage behind a main house. They were in a bathtub and had no pulses, fire department spokesman Erik Scott said.
They were given cardiopulmonary resuscitation and taken to a hospital, he said.
Doctors worked on both girls for two hours, but the 1-year-old died and the 5-year-old was transferred to Children's Hospital in critical but stable condition, said Katreena Salgado, spokeswoman for California Hospital Medical Center.
If convicted, Valle faces 50 years to life in prison.
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