Actress Hunter Tylo sues over son’s drowning death

By Steve Green (contact)

Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2009 | 1:55 a.m.

Hunter Tylo

Actress Hunter Tylo is suing a social worker and a therapy center, charging they're responsible for the 2007 drowning death of her son.

Tylo alleges social worker Shanna Downing and Horizon Family Therapy & Wellness, the Henderson clinic where Downing treated Tylo family members, had advised that Michael Edward Tylo II, 19, not receive medication for seizures he was experiencing -- and that Tylo II later drowned after suffering a seizure.

The social worker, however, has previously denied responsibility for Tylo II's death and her attorney has produced evidence indicating seizure medication had been prescribed to him.

Hunter Tylo's suit was filed Friday in Clark County District Court in Las Vegas.

Tylo II, known as Mickey, drowned in the family pool in Henderson on Oct. 18, 2007.

Hunter Tylo, who plays Dr. Taylor Hayes Forrester Marone on the daytime CBS series "The Bold and the Beautiful," is the national spokeswoman for the American Epilepsy Outreach Foundation.

The foundation says that on the night of his death, Mickey was in the home and had walked outside near the pool to possibly receive better reception on his cell phone, experienced a seizure and fell into the pool.

Mickey's father is actor Michael Tylo, known for his work on "The Guiding Light."

This is not the first time Hunter Tylo has blamed Downing and Horizon Family Therapy & Wellness for her son's death.

In 2008, attorneys for the actress tried to amend an existing lawsuit against the defendants to include the wrongful death claim.

Hunter Tylo had sued the therapist and Horizon Family Therapy in 2006, alleging Downing had improperly treated Hunter Tylo and three of her children in 2004 and 2005, allegedly causing them emotional distress.

But Clark County District Court Judge Timothy Williams in 2008 refused to allow the wrongful death claims to be added to the 2006 suit, ruling that would not be permitted without an affidavit from a "qualified expert establishing a causal link between therapy provided by Downing to Michael E. Tylo II and Michael E. Tylo II's subsequent death."

With the defendants denying Downing improperly treated Hunter Tylo and her children, the 2006 suit is pending and is headed toward a trial in 2010.

In Friday's lawsuit, filed by attorneys with the Las Vegas law firm Mainor Eglet Cottle, Hunter Tylo claims the defendants had advised Mickey to stop taking all medications, including his anti-seizure medication.

"Downing specifically advised (Mickey) and his mother that (his) seizures were due to the stress he was experiencing due to his parents break up," the suit says.

"Downing told (Mickey) and Hunter Tylo that once the stress was eliminated in (Mickey's) life, his seizures would disappear. Downing told plaintiffs that (Mickey) would 'never seizure again' and that he did not need to take an anti-seizure medication.

"The care, advise and treatment rendered to plaintiff by defendants caused his seizures to continue and lead to his untimely death," charged the suit, which seeks unspecified damages.

An attorney for Downing has previously called the wrongful death claim against Downing "ridiculous."

"Plaintiffs can draw no causal connection between counseling that ended nearly two years prior to what is universally accepted as an accidental drowning," attorney Michael Shannon wrote in 2008 in successfully arguing that the 2006 case not be amended to include the wrongful death claim.

"The available records in this case demonstrate that Mickey was being treated for his seizure disorder during the approximate two-year period after he stopped seeing Downing," Shannon wrote.

Shannon produced records showing a doctor who saw Mickey in the summer of 2007 had reported Mickey was receiving anti-seizure medication.

"Given that Mickey was diagnosed with seizure disorder and was actively being treated for the disorder in the years after his therapy with Downing ended, there is no conceivable connection to the therapy and the accidental drowning," Shannon wrote.