Jun 11, 2009 9:50 pm US/Eastern
Child Hurt In Chamber Explosion Dies In Hospital
4-Year Old Francesco Martinizi Was Critically Hurt May 1
His Grandmother Died In The Hyperbaric Chamber Explosion
He Suffered Burns Over 90% Of His Body
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
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The 4-year-old, Francesco Martinizi, was transported via air rescue helicopter to the hospital on Friday, May 1, 2009.
CBS
A four year old boy from Italy who was critically hurt after a hyperbaric chamber explosion and fire has died from his injuries on Thursday.
Francesco Martinizi had cerebral palsy. His family brought him to South Florida from Campania, Italy for hyperbaric oxygen treatments which aren't offered in Italy.
On Friday, May 1st, the boy and his 62-year old grandmother were inside a pressurized oxygen chamber at the Ocean Hyperbaric Oxygen Neurologic Center in Lauderdale-By-The-Sea. She was cradling him in her arms to make him feel safe, when something went terribly wrong. There was an explosion inside the chamber and a flash fire that fatally burned the grandmother, Vincenza Pesce, and left the boy with severe burns over 90 percent of his body. Francesco had been at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami.
"This is the tragic end of a very sad story that should never have happened," Russell S. Adler, a Fort Lauderdale attorney representing the Martinisi family told the
Sun-Sentinel.
Hyperbaric oxygen chambers are used to breathe pure oxygen while under increased air pressure as a means to treat a variety of medical conditions.
Authorities said a blast dislodged a tube attached to the hyperbaric chamber, which resulted in an explosion and flash fire. The investigation continues.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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