March 6: Parents: Baby Maverick 'doing as well as can be expected'

As 6-week-old Maverick Werth slept in his mother's arms Wednesday, there was little sign of the trauma he suffered when he was just a few hours old.

The burn scars have begun to fade on his face and scalp.

Only his right hand, poking out from his blue sweater, hinted at the raw, red skin that still covers part of his upper body, the result of a fire in his hospital bassinet on Jan. 22.

"His face has healed up really well," said his mother, Melissa Werth, 27. "He's doing as well as can be expected with what happened."

Melissa and her husband, Justin Werth, spoke publicly about their son's ordeal for the first time Wednesday.

They still don't know the long-term prospects for Maverick's recovery. But he has come a long way since the accident left him fighting for his life, less than a day after he was born at Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids.

Maverick was injured when a fire mysteriously erupted under a plastic oxygen dome that covered his head as he slept in the hospital nursery. He was rushed to Hennepin County Medical Center with second- and third-degree burns. He was hospitalized for three weeks, until he went home Feb. 10.

"He was the youngest patient they ever dealt with with this severity of burns."

On Jan. 22, Melissa and Justin Werth were on their way to visit their newborn son when they found the entry to the nursery blocked. "They said they were doing a procedure and we couldn't go in," Melissa Werth recalled. "I had a feeling," she said, that it was Maverick. She told her husband: "It's our son that they're working on."

Before long, a doctor and two others arrived to tell them there had been an accident. "When they came in, I thought he was dead," Melissa Werth said. "When they told us he was alive, that part was a relief." Then they heard what had happened.

Maverick, who was three weeks premature, had been receiving oxygen because of breathing problems. Hospital officials said the fire erupted spontaneously inside the oxygen hood, and that two nurses put out the flames immediately.

"It was terrible," Melissa said of seeing her injured son. "No parent should have to see their kid burned."

Maverick remained in a drug-induced coma for several days, and gradually started to heal, his parents said. They felt he turned a corner when the doctors were able to remove his breathing tube, about 10 days after the accident.

One of the most difficult days, his father said, was when they started to wean him off the powerful narcotics used to ease his pain.

Questions remain

Today, Maverick is sleeping and eating normally, and his only pain medication is Tylenol. His parents, who also have a 3-year-old daughter, apply a lotion to his scars three times a day.

The worst scarring remains on his right hand and shoulders, his parents said, with fainter scars on his chin and upper lip. Doctors worry that he may have trouble moving his arms and hands because of the scarring, and his parents say they are meeting with plastic surgeons to evaluate his care.

Chris Messerly, the family's lawyer, said the investigation may take some time. "We'll get the answers as to what caused it and when we do, we'll let the whole world know, so it doesn't happen again," he said.

Maura Lerner • 612-673-7384