The Nation
Jan 25, 01:57 AM
Newborn is critical after oxygen fire MINNEAPOLIS - Oxygen ignited inside a special hood worn by a newborn 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, just 12 hours old and named Maverick, 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 how the fire started. 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. Dr. Leslie Smith said the infant will probably survive. Big Dig contractors settle suit BOSTON - Contractors will pay more than $450 million to settle the state's lawsuit over a fatal tunnel collapse and to cover the costs of leaks and design flaws in the Big Dig, officials said Wednesday. Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff, the consortium that oversaw design and construction of the nation's costliest and most complex highway project, has agreed to pay $407 million, U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan said. Smaller companies will pay about $51 million collectively. Bechtel/Parsons Brinckerhoff will not face criminal charges in the deadly I-90 tunnel ceiling collapse in July 2006. A woman was crushed by 26 tons of concrete as she drove to Logan International Airport. Civil rights icon gets into hall MARION, Ala. - Rosa Parks, who's known as the "mother of the civil rights movement," will be inducted into the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame on March 6. The hall of fame's board selected Ms. Parks as the lone inductee for this year. Women must be deceased for two years before being considered for induction. "Rosa Parks was a woman of silent dignity and grace whose life changed the state, the nation and the world," said Valerie Pope Burnes, director of the hall of fame. Ms. Parks, a black seamstress, was arrested Dec. 1, 1955, for refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery city bus to a white man. Her arrest prompted blacks to boycott Montgomery's bus system and led to a Supreme Court decision ending segregation in public transportation. In other news Three people pleaded not guilty Wednesday to federal charges accusing them of stealing $7.4 million from an armored car company and taking the loot to a West Virginia hideout. A house fire killed four children, their mother and grandmother early Wednesday, Ohio officials said, and authorities arrested an 18-year-old man in the blaze hours later. Michael Davis, of Youngstown, was charged with six counts of aggravated murder and six counts of aggravated arson, city police said. A man accused of drugging his 9-year-old daughter with cold medicine so he could meet his mistress has pleaded guilty to endangerment for leaving the girl and her younger sister alone at night. - Edited from wire reports by Deepika Rao (c) 2008 Augusta Chronicle, The. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.
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