Disabled boy shown in Gore ad dies at 4-1/2

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A disabled Everett infant whose plight drew the attention of then-Vice President Al Gore and became a centerpiece in Gore's 2000 presidential campaign died early yesterday.

Ian Malone couldn't swallow or eat and needed near-constant medical supervision after he was accidentally deprived of oxygen during his birth. He stopped breathing about 5 a.m., his father said. Ian was 4½ years old.

Ian's severe neurological damage became the subject of countless newspaper and television stories beginning in 1999, as his parents, Dylan and Christine Malone, repeatedly battled Aetna U.S. Healthcare's efforts to scale back Ian's in-home care.

In 2000, seeing nowhere else to turn, his parents telephoned Al Gore just as he was about to make a campaign swing through Seattle. Aetna then agreed to cover the 16 hours a day of medical care that Ian needed.

That August, Ian and his parents were seated with Tipper and Al Gore in skyboxes at the Democratic National Convention. A month later, they were featured in a Gore campaign commercial.

After Gore lost the election, the Malones continued to keep in touch with the former vice president, and continued to fight for improved health care for their son.

"He was a famous little baby who made a mark on Seattle, a mark on politics and a mark on policy," Dylan Malone, a graphic artist, said last night.

"The fact that he made that kind of mark by the age of 4 made things a little easier. We knew how much people cared for him. They were always telling us."