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 5-year-old was removed from life support Monday at Children's Hospital Los Angeles said Officer Karen Rayner, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Police Department.
"I was told the child had died, but I have not yet had that confirmed," Rayner told City News Service early Tuesday. "I'm waiting for a call back from a supervisor regarding her current condition."
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, 32-year-old Lorna Valle, was charged with murder and attempted murder Friday and is being held on $1.5 million bail.
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.
Valle is being held on $1.5 million bail.
If convicted, she faces 50 years to life in prison.
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