A Tearful Powers Draws 5-Year Term for Drugging Baby

Former Encino hospital technician Randy Powers, convicted last month of injecting an 11-month-old Van Nuys girl with a near-fatal dose of the heart drug lidocaine, was sentenced Wednesday to a maximum term of five years in state prison.

Powers, with tears in his eyes, covered his face with his hands as Van Nuys Superior Court Commissioner Alan B. Haber imposed the sentence.

The 26-year-old man was convicted last month of assault with a deadly weapon, unlawful practice of medicine and child endangering for administering a massive dose of the anesthetic to Sarah Mathews on Sept. 10, 1984.

The girl’s father, Brian Mathews, expressed satisfaction with Powers’ prison term. “Maybe he wanted to be a hero, but if he wanted to experiment, he should have bought a chemistry set,” Mathews said.

Requires Medication Daily

The drug rendered Sarah unconscious. She underwent an emergency tracheotomy to help her breathe and was released from the Northridge Medical Center after five weeks. Now 20 months old, she has almost fully recovered, but must take medication daily because of the seizures she suffered after the injection.

Mathews, an employee for a San Fernando Valley moving company, said his daughter’s $40,000 hospital bills have been paid by state medical benefits, insurance and a trust fund made up of donations.

During the 10-day non-jury trial, Powers contended that an emergency-room doctor injected the anesthetic in the child, and that he was the victim of a cover-up by physicians at the Northridge hospital.

On the morning of the incident, Sarah was dropped off at the Encino home of the defendant’s mother, Hazel Powers, for baby-sitting. Testimony at the trial showed that the girl developed convulsions and was rendered unconscious before Randy Powers drove her to the hospital. There, physicians discovered she had been injected with 20 times the normal adult dosage of lidocaine.

Dismissed in 1983

According to a probation department report, Powers was dismissed in 1983 from a nurses’ aide position at Olive View Mid-Valley Hospital in Van Nuys after patients reported incidents of sexual misconduct.

Powers will be eligible for parole after serving half his prison term.

Powers still is under investigation in the deaths of at least 15 patients at two hospitals that employed him as a hospital attendant in 1983 and 1984, Deputy Dist. Atty. Brian Kelberg said.