St. Mary’s student badly burned in weekend explosion | Local news

CROWN POINT – Students and staff at St. Mary’s Catholic Community School pray for the recovery of a seventh grader injured in a weekend blast.
Crown Point’s Jaden Mendez suffered severe burns on Sunday in an accident as he and his father, Jimmy, were repairing an oven at a local business.
âOur entire community is devastated by the suffering of Jaden and his family,â school principal Tom Ruiz said in a statement.
Ruiz said Jaden helps his father with his work.
âWhen Jimmy went to the van to retrieve a part, he heard a loud explosion. When he ran back, he saw that the explosion was powerful enough to throw his son, Jaden, out of the building they were working in. “
The cause of the accident, which may have involved a natural gas line and a propane heater, is under investigation.
Ruiz said Jaden suffered burns to his face, arms and legs so severe he would have been airlifted to Chicago if the weather hadn’t been so windy.
He was eventually transported to Comer Children’s Hospital, a University of Chicago medical facility in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood.
Ruiz said Jaden’s neck was so injured that he can currently only breathe through tubes in his throat. He said Jaden almost lost his hands in the explosion.