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May 4, 2009 8:40 am US/Eastern
Child Fighting To Survive After Chamber Explosion
The Italian Family Flew To South Florida
For The 4-Year-Old's Oxygen Therapy Sessions
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
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The 4-year-old, Francesco Martinizi, was transported via air rescue helicopter to the hospital on Friday.
CBS
A four year old boy from Italy is fighting to survive after a hyperbaric chamber explosion and fire that took his grandmother's life.
Francesco Martinizi flew to America in the arms of his family and on a dream that villagers across Campania, Italy, made possible. More than $100,000 was raised to send him, his parents, and his grandmother, "Nonna", to South Florida for oxygen treatments.
Francesco has cerebral palsy. It has prevented him from being able to talk and he has difficulty walking. His family has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and most of their time on his treatment.
On Friday they went to the Ocean Hyperbaric Oxygen Neurologic Center at 4001 Ocean Drive in Lauderdale-By-The-Sea because hyperbaric oxygen therapy isn't offered in their home country of Italy. Hyperbaric oxygen chambers are used to breathe pure oxygen while under increased air pressure as a means to treat a variety of medical conditions.
The family had hoped to return with smiles to their hometown San Felice a Cancello, named in honor of St. Felice, Italy's patron saint of happiness.
During the session, the boy's 62-year-old grandmother cradled the child in her arms in the chamber to make him feel safe. But something went terribly wrong. There was an explosion inside the chamber and a flash fire there fatally burned the grandmother and left the boy with severe burns over 90 percent of his body. It's not known whether the child's burns are survivable.
Italy is on the cusp of tears. This little boy is no stranger there. His hometown is just an hour from where my grandmother was born, a region where villagers raised the funds to send him to America.
The tragedy is making headlines around the world and for an Italian village there is heartbreak once again. Francesco left here in the care of his grandmother as his parents had returned to San Felice a Cancello so that his mother could give birth to his sibling. She remains in Italy with the infant, and Francesco's father made this unbearably sad trip here on his own.
It appears that this is the first time such a death from explosion associated with a hyperbaric oxygen chamber has occurred in the United States. The investigation into what went wrong is just unfolding. The search for answers may well end up in court.
CBS4 reporter Michelle Gillen contributed to this report
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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