A child seriously injured after the sport utility vehicle his mother was driving slid off a west Little Rock road and into a freezing pond in January 2013 has died.
Le Yang, 7, died Monday morning. His death was first reported on the Arkansas Times blog.
Roller-Chenal Funeral Home is handling arrangements for Le's funeral.
Le was a backseat passenger in a 2006 Ford Expedition driven by his mother, Jinglei Yi, that hit a patch of black ice on Cooper Orbit Road shortly before 8 a.m. Jan. 14, 2013, and skidded before rolling into a pond, police said.
Neither Yi nor her son could swim, and the mother and son waited more than 30 minutes to be rescued because a city 911 operator called Metropolitan Emergency Medical Service about the wreck but failed to relay the report of a water accident with entrapment to police and fire dispatchers, according to the 911 tapes and police reports.
Yi, 39, died later that morning. Le, who was 5 at the time, was transported to Arkansas Children's Hospital.
Le's father and Yi's husband, Dayong Yang, filed a lawsuit in August 2013 that says Little Rock and several employees were negligent and constituted a deliberate indifference in hiring, training, supervising and retaining city communications center dispatcher Candace Middleton, the 911-operator who alerted MEMS but not police and fire crews about the crash.
The lawsuit also accuses Middleton, two firefighters and MEMS of "negligent performance of undertaking to render rescue services" and firefighters and police of thwarting private-aid attempts to save Dayong Yang's wife and son.
Middleton resigned six months after the accident amid an investigation into how she handled the call.
Dayong Yang's lawsuit states that Le Yang "suffered losing consciousness and cognitive function" and asks for "money damages, both compensatory and punitive, for the serious permanent bodily injuries suffered by Le caused by the defendants as stated herein."
Earlier this month, the case was moved from Pulaski County Circuit Court to U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas.
Carter Stein, one of the attorneys representing Dayong Yang, said Tuesday that the lawsuit would go forward, though it now becomes a wrongful death case that "brings in additional damages."
The defendants have moved to dismiss the claims of the lawsuit.
Metro on 01/21/2015