Re: Hospital Incubator Fire Badly Burns Newborn

Incubator Fire Badly Burns Minn. Newborn
Newborn in Critical Condition After Fire in Oxygen Hood He Was Wearing
at Minn. Hospital
By ELIZABETH DUNBAR
The Associated Press
MINNEAPOLIS


Oxygen ignited inside a special hood worn by a newborn infant in a
hospital, burning the boy's head and face and leaving him in critical
condition.

The newborn was lying in an open-topped bassinet under a warmer at
Mercy Hospital in suburban Coon Rapids on Tuesday when the accident
happened, Allina Hospital and Clinics said in a statement.

The baby was wearing an oxygen hood, a device that fits over the face
to supply additional oxygen, when something caused the gas to ignite,
the statement read.

Nurses who were with the baby immediately put out the fire, Allina
said. Authorities were investigating.

Allina spokesman David Kanihan declined to release the brand of oxygen
hood and warmer, citing the investigation.

The baby, born three weeks early, was taken to the neonatal intensive
care unit at Hennepin County Medical Center and is being treated by
doctors from the hospital's burn center. Hospital officials said
Wednesday that he was in critical but stable condition.

Dr. Leslie Smith said the infant will probably survive. But he
suffered second- and third-degree burns over nearly a fifth of his
body, including his head, shoulders, part of his face and the tops of
his hands, Smith said.

"This is our first experience with burns at this age," said Dr. George
Peltier, a plastic surgeon at the burn center.

He was being treated with fluids and medications and was breathing
with the help of a ventilator, Smith said. He will be able to use his
fingers and hands and should have a normal life, she said.

The boy was just 12 hours old when he was burned, weighs 8 pounds and
is named Maverick. Hospital officials did not release the family's
name.

Chris Messerly, an attorney for the newborn's family, said that the
fire shouldn't have happened, but that the family is focused on
letting their baby heal and is not yet considering legal action. The
family has one other child, a daughter, he said.

"The family is doing remarkably well under the circumstances,"
Messerly said. "This is a mother who's never held her son, who's not
allowed to touch her son."


Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights rese
Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Michaels car catches fire in FP3.
    ... Your flesh would "burn" without flame. ... (You'd go to the burns ... fire, and you smudged your rather neat explanation with it. ... with pit crew pouring buckets of water all ...
    (rec.autos.sport.f1)
  • Re: magic, morality, and mechanization
    ... proving that we cannot know right from wrong, ... of speculative realism given in Wikipedia is that fire does *not* ... properties of other objects -- and that vicar then causes the object ... understanding recognizes that it's the phlogiston that burns! ...
    (rec.arts.sf.composition)
  • Re: The small iron chest burns up!
    ... The Large Steel Chest burns up! ... Fire shouldn't be able to burn metal objects, ... That can't really damage metals unless they are exposed to it a long time. ...
    (rec.games.roguelike.angband)
  • Re: Songs about fire and smoke...need help...
    ... Another person that I work with was able to catch the fire with his ... After the fire the fire still burns ... The memories smoulder and the soul always yearns ... The memories smolder and the soul always yearns ...
    (rec.music.phish)
Loading