Set afire, teen now struggles for survival

[JI7]

Source: CNN

He's hooked up to the marvels of modern medicine that are trying to give the 15-year-old burn victim a chance to be a kid once again.

Brewer is heavily sedated, and the ventilator does not allow him to speak. His open wounds are covered by bandages, which are changed daily. It's a four-hour process.

He has not been able to speak with police since his desperate fight for life began October 12, when police say five teenage friends, including a 13-year-old, doused Brewer with rubbing alcohol and set him on fire.

"There's no evolutionary mechanism to survive a 65 percent burn," Namias said.

Read more: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/11/02/teen.burned.recovery/

---

Michael Brewer

[tblue]

1. This just makes me so mad and so sad. I have a 15 y.o. son.

And my heart just breaks for this kid and his family. What a buncha monsters who did this to him. So hard to fathom. What is wrong with people?????!

[avaistheone1]

7. I hope his young age and advances in medicine can save him.

Then I hope this boy can be somehow become whole again and live out a good life.

[zonkers]

2. He's got soulful eyes in that picture.

[bluestateguy]

3. The thugs who did this should have their lives irreparably ruined

No college, no future, no job. Only prison, poverty and destitution.

[Jkid]

9. There's already a sanction for that

Life imprisonment

[Joe Bacon]

17. I don't think that goes far enough.

Those punks parents should be forced to pay for the victim's medical care for the rest of their lives.

[pitohui]

24. um, i think we should punish the guilty, not everybody the accused might be related to

i don't see how beggaring the parents accomplishes anything

people who can do math and realize that you aren't guaranteed the perfect kid ALREADY plan ahead and don't have kids

from my observation it's possible for perfectly decent people to have worthless, shitty kids, who knows why, but i've too often noticed that one kid in a family will be decent and worthwhile and another kid will be a worthless sociopathic junkie and they had the same parents so maybe parents are not so powerful as you imagined when you were six -- maybe we should judge people for their own actions and not for the actions of others --

as for the doctors, what they are doing to this boy is infinitely more cruel than if they had just let him go, and they're doing it for MONEY, they admit outright they are just hoping for "survival" and survival for this person would not be anything any of us, or any of those doctors, would be willing to accept for ourselves or anybody we cared about

if we are angry and want to punish an adult because we figure the kids are going to get off, and i suppose they will, at least the 13 year old will, then i don't see why the parents should be punished more than the doctors who are keeping someone alive at great expense with no hope for any kind of future except a hell of suffering-- how they are such heroes when they torturing him for cash? if i'm ever burned like this, for the love of jesus, don't torture me, let me go -- this is just cruel

[go west young man]

32. Your way off base.

A child is the parents responsibility until an adult. Those parents should pay every penny for that young boys wounds. Where you are going with the let him die line is ridiculous. Let's hope he lives with little pain and that he gets justice. Your correlation between doctors doing "it" for money and this boy being able to live is pathetic. Good thing he's not your son. He'd be dead while you rant and rave about the doctors bills.

[Vehl]

26. Totally agree!!

I hope this kid pulls through :(
my heart goes out to him and his family

[bluestateguy]

20. But life in prison also means free health care and 3 meals a day

No, no. 20-40 years in prison, which will break them and make them unemployable and ruined.

[flvegan]

4. This may be evil, but I hope all 5 accused if found guilty, by plea or by jury

receive proper, equitable punishment.

[avaistheone1]

5. What kind of kids do this do their friends?

Sick.

:grr: :grr: :puke:

[boppers]

6. A theft leads to a theft which leads to attempted murder?

This is what happens in societies that call for disproportionate justice to "make a point".... over a kid stealing a game, another kid stealing a bike, and cops being called in over the mutual thefts.

I'm guessing Brewer will never steal again, but fuck, *breathing* or *walking* again is going to be a bigger challenge in his life.

[musicblind]

28. Actually, from my understanding he did not steal the video game

he had just not yet been able to pay the boy the $40 he owed him for the video game at the time of the incident.

[InfiniteThoughts]

8. prayers for the victims, hope the 5 accussed rot in hell ...

[Lorien]

10. This is what happens when greed, selfishness and materialism are promoted

over human life. This is what happens when swift retribution is beloved by a culture as the proper response to any "wrong". You see it right here on this thread; the first thought of many is "put them away for good", not "what lead to this insane criminal behavior?" If we don't address the causes things will only get worse over time. I hope the boy recovers, and that the Nation can recover from it's steady devaluation of human life.

[boppers]

11. See the threads on DU about other crimes.

It's ugly.

[Rebubula]

15. This is Human Nature

Do you think that this type of behavior is limited to capitalistic society? To the US?

This sort of sick shit has been happening since the inception of time. The Inquisitions, slavery (and not just the US version - the version that has been in use for 3 thousand years), genocide, thousands of wars and countless other acts. Every country on Earth has horror stories like this that stretch back thousands of years.

Let's not pretend that it is due to some new greedy attitude.

This is humankind...man is no damn good.

Feel free to blame it on Walmart, the republicans, the tories, Bernie Madoff or jesus christ - it will not change the fact that people are mean and selfish on a species level scale...and have always been that way.

[cali]

19. codswallop. one could just as well blame it on video games.

and cruelty among children is hardly a new phenomenon.

[Robb]

22. LOL

I don't always agree with you, cali. But today I do. And I'm going to stick "codswallop" in my bat-belt to use later. :rofl:

[Selatius]

12. I'm speculating, but those 5 kids who set this boy on fire probably came from fairly bad parents.

Honestly, how a kid deals with a wrong depends largely on what they are taught in the early years of life. If that foundation is weak or cracked, what they build upon that will be shaky at best. I would imagine if they do get prison time, at least 5 years or even more would be given for attempted murder.

[a la izquierda]

13. You might be right...

my sister was in and out of jail over the course of 5 years. Mostly, she was charged with possession of drugs. My sister wasn't a bad person, just an addict. However, never once during those years did she ever do anything violent to another human being, even after being slashed in the face with a razor. I think that, even though my mom wouldn't bail her out anymore, my sister knew that my family still loved her and wanted her to get better (she didn't want the help, though). While in jail, my mom visited her, my grandparents still sent her birthday cards with money...My mom was did the best she could without help from my dad (because she wouldn't take it and hated him); and my sisters and I knew that violence was bad, vengeance was wrong and hurting someone might last forever.

[Tim01]

14. What kind of an area did this kid live in that people are burned for "snitching" ?

I'm just curious if this was an "inner city" thing or a "spoiled little rich monsters" thing.

[tosh]

18. Broward County, Florida.

Fort Lauderdale, no inner city there. A lot of affluence and a fair amount of lower-middle income that I would not quite describe as poverty.

[Odin2005]

16. OMG, what "friends" light a person on fire?

:wtf: :cry:

[Unca Jim]

21. Not making excuses nor am I an apologist for the attackers...

but I was a teenaged boy once and did a lot of stupid, dangerous, mean-spirited things without thinking through the possible consequences.

That's why we have a Juvenile Justice System.

That said, I want to hear the details of the case when they come out in trial. Were they really planning to light him on fire, or just scare him? Did they understand how quickly and how explosively alcohol burns? Did anyone try to stop the flames?

I'm not sure why people jump right to the "all these kids are monsters" conclusion.

To me, a more likely scenario is that the attackers were trying to intimidate the victim and when the victim caught fire they freaked out and ran.


It will all come out; I await the facts of the case.

[musicblind]

29. From my understanding they even tried to keep the boy from escaping

after they surrounded him and threw the alcohol on him to light him on fire. AND after the fact, KNOWING what they had done. They LAUGHED about it and joked about it at the Sheriff's office. That was bothers me is (other than one person out of the group of five) they haven't shown remorse.

I was a teenage boy once too (not even that long ago) and I knew what setting someone on fire could do. I have long supported lowering the voting age, the drinking age, and the national age of consent. So I am not at all hypocritical when I say that I think these teenagers should be tried as adults. I dislike the way we look at our youths with such warped perspectives. Teenagers are not innocent, they are not special, and they are not some fawn in the forest to be protected.

I don't, however, believe in the death penalty for any age group. I think these boys should spend a lot of time in prison and undergo a lot of therapy.

[mstinamotorcity]

23. Friends

these are not friends these are cold calculating young criminals. They think that they will not have to serve a sentence they think they will get a time out. Maybe we should start letting these children know about the changes to the law. And let them know that states are coming under more increasing pressure to try more and more youths as adults. And maybe you should make their parents have to pay some monetary damages for their children's behavior, and then maybe they would pay more attention to their children and be able to identify when they have violent tendencies that may need addressing with professional help. Can't get mental health services?? All together now DU. Healthcare Reform with a sincere Public Option with Mental Health Benefits.

[Cass]

25. This is heartbreaking. What a handsome boy with such beautiful eyes.

What the hell is wrong with people that they would do these things to another person? I cannot fathom this.

I hope this young man will recover and I hope whoever did this rots in a cell.

[NYC Liberal]

27. I hope the 911 call is played at the trial.

If you listen to it, it is absolutely horrific.

[musicblind]

30. "Teen Laughed After Setting Boy On Fire"

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/13/florida.teen.burned/index.html

[musicblind]

31. Kicking this because it disturbs me as much as the richmond high school gang rape

and is as important. Sadly, however, he doesn't seem to have gotten nearly the coverage. Every since I first read this story it struck a weird chord with me, maybe because of my own childhood. I just think we should work hard to let people know about this story and stop the bullying, and out of control anger that is gripping out society.

[musicblind]

33. Daily kick n/t

[JI7]

34. ughhhhhhh Sister Of Burned Teen Finds Charred Dolls In Pool

some people are just evil

<The Broward Sheriff's Office is investigating what could be a cruel prank pulled on the sister of a South Florida teenager who was set on fire. Two charred dolls were found floating in Melissa Durkee's pool on Wednesday, according to BSO. She's the sister of 15-year-old Michael Brewer.

"We feel that it may have been a threat of some kind", said the burned victim's aunt, Patti Gendrom. "It could've been a cruel trick by a kid; it could've been anything. We don't know.">