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Politics & Government

Severely Injured Teen to Get $250,000 Settlement for Tragic Fight

The lawsuit alleges negligence by Fire Department paramedics and Sheriff's Department deputies who attended the minor's injuries after a gang related altercation at McDonald's in Weho.

The Board of Supervisors approved a $250,000 settlement Tuesday in a lawsuit filed against Los Angeles County paramedics by the parents of a 17-year-old boy who has been in a persistent vegetative state for more than two years.

Andriy Sviridov of Los Angeles was involved in a fight in the parking lot of in West Hollywood on Nov. 17, 2009. Some onlookers said that he had been trying to break up the fight, according to the county's court papers.

When county Fire Department paramedics arrived on the scene and examined Sviridov, he had no physical complaints, chest pain, nausea or visible trauma, according to documentation provided by county attorneys.

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All of Sviridov's vital signs were within normal limits and he did not want to go to the hospital, so paramedics released him to his 20-year-old brother, according to the county counsel's office.

The next morning, L.A. Fire Department paramedics responded to a 911 call from the boy's home and found him unconscious, his eyes fixed and dilated—the result of bleeding in his brain, according to the county counsel.

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The teen was taken to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he remained for more than two months before being transferred to a long-term care facility, where he remains in a persistent vegetative state.

The family sued the county, contending that paramedics were negligent in not taking the boy to a hospital after the fight.

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