A five-year-old boy has suffered serious burns after being pulled from the wreckage following a serious crash that killed his father and grandparents.
Nathaniel Rodriguez was traveling in a vehicle with his father, the man’s girlfriend and grandparents when the car suddenly left the road and struck a tree stump, causing it to catch fire on December 15 in San Bernardino, California.
The boy was the only survivor and had to be pulled from the wreckage by firefighters who arrived on the scene.
The San Bernardino County Coroner’s Office identified the victims as Edgar Rodriguez, 35, of Victorville; Ramiro Rodriguez, 60, of Victorville; Maria Benitez Ramos, 62, of Victorville; and Melinda Perez, 44, of Hesperia, according to the Victorville Daily Press.
The incident, which took place a day after the boy’s birthday, left him with burns over 50 percent of his body.
He suffered the worst damage to his arms and doctors at UC Irvine Medical Center were forced to amputate them both below the elbow.
“You never think this could happen to you until it does,” Rodriguez’s mother, Adriana Shrem, said ABC7. “That was very heartbreaking to know that my child was awake with him practically burning, his whole face, his hands.”
He also broke both his legs in the crash and has undergone multiple surgeries.
“He needs a specialist for the head, eyes and lips, and his condition remains the same: critical,” Shrem told the outlet.
Nathaniel Rodriguez was traveling in a vehicle with his father and his girlfriend along with his grandparents when the vehicle suddenly left the road and struck a tree stump, causing it to catch fire on December 15 in San Bernardino, California.
‘It’s day to day. Every day he comes back from surgery it’s a blessing. That’s all I could ask for.’
Rodriguez has also developed mucormycosis, a serious fungal infection, which requires aggressive surgical control to prevent the disease from spreading across his face, a researcher said. GoFundMe page.
The child is stable on a ventilator in a medically induced ‘coma’, but he is still ‘seriously ill’.
On Christmas Day, the fundraiser’s organizer also revealed that the young child would likely also have to undergo a tracheostomy – a surgical process in which a tube is placed into his windpipe to keep him safely connected to a ventilator later this week.
Tom DeBellis, battalion chief of the Colton Fire Department, recalled pulling the boy from the flames.
“There were just crying sounds that we could hear that alerted us that there was someone else in the vehicle,” he said.
“Because he was exposed to so much fire, heat and smoke, we wanted to get him to the hospital right away before something worse happened to him.”
The incident, which took place a day after the boy’s birthday, left him with burns over 50 percent of his body.
He suffered the worst damage to his arms and doctors at UC Irvine Medical Center were forced to amputate them both below the elbow.
He also broke both his legs in the crash and has undergone multiple surgeries
The cause of the crash remains unknown.
As of now, the crowdfunding page has raised $66,558 of its $75,000 goal.
‘Don’t take life for granted. Love the people around you. If you have any animosity towards someone… just be happy.
“Life is too short and you never know what can happen in the blink of an eye,” the discouraged mother added.